Ballad of the Dark God
by Kirashound
Summary: Light is the reincarnation of the Dark God Typhon, now using the Death Note in an attempt to regain his immortality. Sort of follows Death Note plot arcs of battle with L and battle with Near, but then goes off into total creative liscense later on. SEVERE OC AND CHARACTER PERSONALITY CHANGES. I DONT OWN DEATH NOTE OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. Sadomasochistic themes in later chapters.
1. Pagan Blood

1 Pagan Blood (異教の血液)

The elevator dinged as the door slid open to reveal a crisp white hotel room and a trio of people who stood before them, all of whom were, in their own way, only describably as bizarre. The woman was tall and curvy with a vuloptuos chest barely contained within a leather outfit which was scanty at best with salt white hair and a blood spattered lead pipe lying carelessly against one shoulder; she stood in between two men, the first of whom was strange only in the sheer intensity of his normalcy, with big blue eyes and hair the color of burnished gold dressed in simple clothing that hugged his form. The second man and final member of the triage was undeniably the oddest out of all of them; dressed in a loose white t-shirt and baggy dark blue pants he busied himself in the art of scratching one foot with the other while staring at them with baggy onyx eyes situated high on his sallow face just below a shock of unruly black hair.

"I am L," the latter said in a deadpan voice, not even bothering to blink at their obvious shock though somewhere deep down within himself he allowed a small chuckle at the fact that-be it a deerstalker, a monacol or something else all together-he most certainly had not lived up to their exorpitant and highly unrealistic expectations as to exactly what it was the greatest detective and smartest man on earth would look like. "This is Genko," he motioned to the woman, "and this is Renold," he motioned to the man. "Don't bother introducing yourselves; not only would it be a waste of valuable time considering the fact that I already know your names but because such bad habits as compulsive introductions could well get one killed over the course of this case. You will be given false later. For now, follow me; we'll speak in the sitting room so that we can all be more comfortable." He shuffled out of view without further adue accompanied by his companions who were no doubt used to this sort of blunt behavior by now. After recovering from a fleeting moment of gaping at each other in open mouthed shock the Chief of Police and the four others who had proven unlucky enough to find themselves drafted into the Kira case followed after. In the sitting room they found Genko and Renold situated in casual intimacy on the love seat; L had seated himself on an armchair with his legs pulled up to his chest in much the same manner as a bird about to take flight and was now industriously sucking away at a lollipop while staring at them with his dead fish eyes. "Well," he demanded after a moment when none of his newly stunned guests moved, "sit! We have much to speak of and little time!" Realising that they had no choice in the matter, Soichiro Yagami, Touta Matsuda, Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi, and Hideki Ide did as they were told and positioned themselves in the various other empty seats while trying to make themselves as comfortable as one could while underneath the unblinking gaze of the hunched over man who was now stirring his coffee with a silver spoon clenched between his toes.

"…" Chief Yagami cleared his throat in an attempt to break the silence. "The case?"

"We'll get there," L tasted his coffee and frowned. "Needs more sugar." Only once he'd succeeded in turning the coffee into brownish sugar sludge did he lick his lips with satisfaction and set the cup softly back down on its saucer. "As I'm sure that you all know, I've called you here in regards to the Kira case?"

Relieved to at last perhaps be getting down to business, all five men nodded. "Yes," it was the Chief who answered.

"And, as I'm sure you all know, 'Kira'-as the media has taken to calling this mass murderer who would see fit to play at being God-is no normal killer?" Once more, this statement was met with nods of conviction from the entire party. "Magic, as I am sure that none of you other than Yagami-san will believe or even understand without any explination seeing as he is the only warlock amongst you, exists and-."

"Warlock?" Matsuda interrupted loudly as the other four stared at their mortified looking chief. "What does he mean you're a 'warlock' boss?"

"I mean exactly what I mean; the Yagami family is descended from a long line of powerful witches and warlocks; most were Wiccan but quite a few notable Pagans of the deadliest kind-including the Demon God-also came from their blood line." L spoke in a voice as casual as if he'd just asked for another cup of coffee-dampened sugar. "Of course it is normal for magical families, especially old magical families, to conceal their true lineage. Not only would they now a days most likely be thrown into a padded white cell and left for dead, but Witchcraft has never been met with the greatest degree of acceptance ever; Salem, in the 1600s, ought to give you a good idea of exactly why they hide. But back to my point; there are two forms of magic in this world, Witchcraft and Sorcery. Witchcraft is White Magic based off principals of Karma and Empathy, and, along with the mantra of 'do as thou wilt so long as it harms none', is practiced by the Wiccan of Circle Daybreak. Sorcery is Black Magic; where not always strictly evil it is unavoidably dark and classically employed for the furtherance of such nefarious ends as blood lust, vengeance and power. It is based off of suffering, flesh sacrifice and blood shed and is practiced by the Pagans of Circle Midnight with no regard to the fact that it's unwarranted use is against all of the Nightworld's laws. Such frivolous abuse is what spawned Typhon-Prince Kouya's form once twisted into the God of Demons-who was the terrible father of the Void Race." He shook his head, making small tsking sounds. "Whatever it is that Kira is planning on doing, it's bound to get him into trouble with both the Human Police and the Regulators. They don't want another Kouya."

There was silence for a long time; the Police Chief still had his eyes trained intently on the floor, refusing to look at any of his colleages and friends. Finally Ide, the most rational out of all of them, spoke up.

"It's pretty obvious that you take us for stupid!" He accused. "Magic's existence isn't possible!"

"Niether is my Half-Demonic ancestry or Kira's ability to use heart attacks to kill off hundreds of thousands of criminals around the world simotaniously." That calm statement firmly shut them up, any doubts fleeing from their minds as the reality that he was entirely serious settled in.

"I'm a Demon and his mother; even think about calling me old and you'll quickly find your insides displaced on the floor, understand me damn it?" Genko hissed before motioning carelessly at Renold. "He's L's Father; an Angel."

"We're taking this case on partly because L simply cannot contain his all consuming desire to study a blood thirsty Pagan running rampant in his natural habitat," Renold's voice was as soft as a kitten's fur and held a lilting almost breathy quality, "and partly because, well, no one wants the Regulators involved when it can be avoided."

"We have a few suspects," Genko picked up the thread of conversation seamlessly, "but nothing concrete as of yet, though we'll be looking in on some certain special people of interest."

"Please do not take this as an insult of any kind Yagami-san," L said, "but the unavoidable truth remains that the most powerful and brutal Pagan to ever live emerged from your bloodline."

"Wait wait wait!" Mastuda interjected again. "Am I hearing this right? You're accusing the Chief of being Kira?"

"Not the Chief, no. I can sense full well that his aura is pure; not only is he most certainly not Kira but he's never touched Black Magic in his life. But someone in his family may have. It is my understanding that you, Yagami-san, have two children?" At the resigned nod, L plowed on triumphantly. "I'm putting professional shadows on both Light and Sayu Yagami!"

He stared at the wall of his room across from his working desk in unlit silence. He'd been staring at that same spot on the wall for hours now; it had been around mid-afternoon when he had started and now night had fallen outside his window. Both inside and outside it was pitch black; nothing had come to mind, discounting the persistant and very painful headache that had blossomed within his skull about twenty minutes before. Resigning himself with a sigh, he got up from his seat at the desk-bumping into some of his other furniture and swearing softly as he did so-and moved across the room to his dresser. Wrenching open a drawer, he searched around blindly for a moment with skillful fingers before closing them around the right one and pressing it to his throbbing temple. Light could feel the soothing buzz of energy from deep within the cool smooth amethyst that he held pressed to his forehead; after a moment or two the pounding waves of migrane receded and finally vanished all together. Wanting them to remain gone, he swiftly tied the piece of amythist into the woven collar that his parents had given him on his 18th birthday alongside the fire agate and sheen obsidian. Even with the headache gone nothing would come to him; completing his summer assignment would just have to wait until tomorrow than. A knock on his bedroom door made him start in surprise.

"Nii-san?" he relaxed immediately at the sound of his sister's familiar voice calling to him from the other side of his door. "Nii-san, are you awake?"

"Yes, Sayu. You can come in." He answered back immediately. A moment later the door opened and the light from the hallway stabbed him in the eyes, making them water momentarily at the sudden slight increase in the level of illumination in the room before adjusting; not before his sister-a few heads shorter than him with her long black hair pulled back into a ponytail-had pressed herself against her beloved older brother's chest in a tight hug.

"I've missed you! Mother didn't tell me you'd be back home for Summer Break, and you didn't either Nii-san!" She accused, stepping away to glare at him. "You could have sent an email or called or texted or something! If you had, than I'd have been home to greet you!"

"It's good to see you too, Sayu." Light grinned at his younger sister, his prefect teeth reduced to a crescent flash of milky white in the darkness. "And to be entirely honest with you, I didn't know that I was coming home from To-Ho University until I found myself bording the train this morning." His grin grew wider, becoming more amused. "It would appear that I've become spontaneous since I've entered my senior year in college."

"It's nice to have you back; we haven't seen you since you left, even over breaks or on the Equinoxes."

"Sayu, Light, come downstairs. Dinner is ready!" Their Mother called, illiciting the pair to take their conversation down the hallway towards the stairs.

"I'm so jealous of you, Light!" She proclaimed loudly to her sibling who was six years her senior at 23. "I still have to wait a whole other year before Mom and Dad will even think about letting me join a Coven! What's yours like? Are they Wiccan? They are, aren't they? You haven't turned into a Pagan, have you?"

"Sayu, let your brother be!" Sachiko scolded her daughter, but her son only laughed.

"Don't worry about it, Mom. I'm sure that same concern crossed you and Dad's minds once or twice, what with our's being Kouya's bloodline and-."

"You know better than to evoke the name of that beast in our house!" She cuffed him gently upside the head before handing him his food.

"Sorry Mother," he apologized sincerely. "And to answer your question, not only is my Coven completely Wiccan and great but I think I've found a partner."

"That's great news!"

"Tell me Nii-san, which way do you swing?" this time it was Sayu who was reprimanded.

"Kiba is all woman, thank you." He snickered back at her. "A powerful and beautiful witch. She was considering coming with me to visit, but hadn't decided before I left." His snigger became a grin. "I'll doubtless be hearing about that later."

"Light!?" the yelp of surprise made all three of them jump and then look up. "You're home?"

"It would seem that my Coven has driven me to that point of insanity where I've begun to make snap decisions solely on a whim."

"Most people call that 'point of insanity' normal, Nii-san."

His grin grew yet wider still; the leering grin of a jack-o-lantern that encompassed his entire face. "I know," Light purred. "That's exactly what worries me."

"How long will you be here?" his Father asked as he took his place at the table.

"All Summer," the happiness faltered to one of slight discomfort when no immediate reaction was given. "Unless…you'd rather I go back to To-Ho. If you're upset with me…for not coming home until now."

"Don't send him back, Dad!" Sayu wailed, attaching herself firmly to her brother's waist. "I've only known that Nii-san was back for ten minutes!"

"I'm not going to send you back and I'm not upset with you for not coming back for the Equinoxes or any of the other holidays," he seemed to be choosing his words carefully as he spoke in a deliberate tone. "I suppose that, with Kira on the loose, it's better to have both of you safely at home than out at College in Sendai. But I don't want your nose in things, Light. You either, Sayu. Both of you are inexperienced and only one of you are even of age; Paganism is nothing that I want either of you near."

"Yes, Father." Sayu answered as he older brother rolled his eyes with an exhasperated snort.

"So you've confirmed it then?" their Mother asked urgently. "This is a Sorcerer's doing?"

He nodded grimly. "Yes."

"What of the others on the task force, Soichiro? They don't-."

"They were informed earlier today." Sayu and her Mother looked at him sharply; Light coughed and choked on his Miso Soup. "It was not my choice; it was taken out of my hands. We were called in to work with L personally and he let everything out of the bag."

Sayu, still clinging tightly to her older brother, was the only one to notice that for a fleeting moment Light became very still and stiff. Then that moment passed and he laughed. "So L is the World's Greatest Detective and a Warlock? All the more reason for me to idolize him as my role model."

"You are not coming in on this Light, not this time. I don't care if you're graduating from To-Ho and the Police Academy next year or next week!"

At this, Light pouted. "I heard you the first time; no involvement with crazy raving Pagans." He sighed dispiritedly. "Can you at least get me his autograph or something?"

"Are you joking?"

Without answering Light buried himself in his bowl of rice.

Perhaps Summer won't be so boring after all, not now that L is involved in my little game. He thought, concealing his evil smirk below the rim of his bowl. I think it's time to see just how far it is that I can push things.

In accordance with L's orders, Ray Penber of the FBI had arrived in Sendai and-after a few days of confusion before happening upon the information that his young target had decided to return home to Tokyo for the duration of the Summer Holiday-was now tailing Light to the Shirahama Beach on the Izu Penninsula; they'd just gotten off of the train from Tokyo. He was fully aware that the girl had a tail of her own, but he couldn't pick her out amongst the crowd; he and his fiancé had both been chosen for the job due to their ability to blend in with the native crowds, they themselves being of Japanese descent and subsequently fluent in the language. He was at current following along behind them as it headed towards the boardwalk, close enough to overhear every word that they were saying but far enough away that he felt sure he wouldn't be noticed. Sayu was wearing a tightly fitting pale pink tank top and black shorts and carrying a beach bag stuffed with towels and sunscreen. Light was dressed in a dark blue and yellow Hawaiian shirt which hung unbuttoned over his toned chest and darkly colored swim shorts that outlined his lithe frame perfectly; a pair of dark sunglasses eclipsed his ecru eyes and a beach ball was swung carelessly under one long arm. Both wore flip flops which scrapped artlessly against the sidewalk as they went.

"It's been so long since I've worn something like this!" He exclaimed happily, the crystals studding his collar in a haphazard seemingly meaningless array flashing just below the apple of his throat as he threw back his head and laughed, carefree.

"Too long, it would seem like." His sister snickered back. "Is Nii-san going off the deep end?"

"I hope not," Light purred back. "However, if I'm wrong, I'll be taking you with me considering the fact that will be hanging out all summer; we have a lot of catching up to do and have nothing better to occupy my time at the moment."

"You're just itching to sink your teeth into the Kira case, aren't you?" at this laughing remark he had to force himself not to break his cover. "Why are you so obsessed all of the sudden?"

"Because this is just the type of case to keep my IQ of 170 occupied for more than a day." Came the smooth, hubris-laced reply.

"It's because Dad told you no for the first time ever." Sayu shot back. "It's the whole concept of forbidden fruit; it has you slavering to get a piece of the case. Admit it!"

"…You know me much too well, dear sister." He sighed. "If I keep wheedling Dad-or perhaps if I find a way to go over his head directly to L with this matter, even if I only get to take Matsuda's place as resident 'coffee boy'-I'll eventually get into it."

"Or," came the petite girl's mischevious reply, "we could put my recently required ability to hack into Dad's files to use and go right for the throat without anyone knowing. Image their surpize when we drag that mad man in on his knees, trussed up like a Thanksgiving Turkey."

"That," Light said, "sounds like an amazing plan." After a swift high five, he quirked up an eyebrow at his younger sibling. "Might I asked how it is that you learned exactly how to break into the NPA's encrypted files?"

"A techy friend of mine, Mikami, he has a thing for me. So, is this a game or not?"

"Catch Kira or go down for espionage?" he weighed this for a moment, mind whirring. Then a grin spread across his sculpted face like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. "Let's play."

"We'll start next week, ok? Can you wait that long?"

He yawned and stretched luxoriously, cracking his back before answering with a casual "I'll have to." They turned off the street and onto the boardwalk, forcing him to drop behind and watch from the line where the sea oats met with the sand as the scheming siblings continued onwards.

"Where did you say we were meeting these ditzy friends of yours again?"

"See that umbrella over there?" she gestured broadly at the sea of beach umbrellas that surrounded them on all sides. "That's where we're meeting them. And they're not ditzy, they're just…"

"American?"

"Yeah."

"Sayu!" Mere moments after the shrill squeal three teenage girls materialized in his path, stopping a rather surprised Light in his tracks. One of them was a brunet, like him. The other two were a blonde and a red head. "You didn't tell us that you were with anyone, let alone that you had an older boyfriend!" The speak, the blonde, turned to him and demanded "just how old are you, anyway?" her blue eyes burned like fire.

"He isn't my-." Sayu began, but Light-grinning wickedly-interrupted her with a swift,

"23."

"A college senior! Wow!" One of the others squealed. "What's your name?"

"No, tell us the pet names! The more embarressing the better!"

"Well," he continued to speak before his sister could interrupt, "she used to call me Nii-Nii."

"I was eight, damn it!"

"But now it's Nii-san." He turned to the brunet. "And my name, to answer your question, is Light Yagami. I'm her older brother."

"Oh…o-oh!" The blonde one blushed brightly in embaressment for a moment before turning her full attention back to Sayu. "Well, you never told us that you were related to Apollo!"

So I went from older boyfriend to older boyfriend to the Greek God of the Sun? he thought. Well, I suppose she could have done worse than stroking my ego. Even if it wasn't necisarilly intentional. His attention shifted back to the blonde as she continued talking.

"I'm Halle Bullooke, an exchange student from America."

"どぞよろしか." Light smiled serenely and took the hand that she offered him in greeting. "It's nice to see my precious baby sister getting along without me."

"I can handle myself, Nii-san! I'm not a Child!" Sayu whined loudly at him.

"That doesn't stop me from worrying about my favorite sibling."

"I'm your only sibling, Light!" She pushed against his chest to free herself of his knuckle sandwich. "Stop it! You're messing up my hair!"

"Come play volleyball with us!" The red head called, running off towards the hard packed wet sand.

"Wait for me Michelle!" Sayu called, shoving the beach bag into her brother's arms.

"Sun screen!" When she gave him an evil look he laughed. "私はあなたがひふがんあえることいるばあい母と父わ私あころすでしょう."

"I'm not going to get skin cancer from one day at the beach, even if I do get sunburned!" Sayu griped, snatching the bottle before running off after her friends. Sighing and shaking his head, Light made his way to the beach umbrella where the trio of girls had come from to find another young man of 17 lying sprawled on his back on a beach towel with his eyes closed.

"If you're planning to tan, I suggest moving out of the shade."

The young man cracked open one eye to peer up at him; it was as black as his hair. "I don't tan. I burn."

"Same," Light seated himself beside the other. "Though I've been told by many-most of whom were women-that I don't need one. Why, just a few moments ago the blonde one called me Apollo."

That's Halle; my girlfriend." He laughed, sitting up and blinking against the harsh sun before holding up a hand to shield his face. "She's as bubbly as all hell and I'm about as stoic as a frozen fish, but we work well together."

"Opposites do tend to attract, though it would seem not to be the case in my relationship; my girlfriend and I are both not only both type A but both Seme." Taking off his sunglasses he held them out to him. "Here; with the way you're squinting you seem to need them more than I do."

"Thanks," leaning forward, he took the sunglasses and slipped them on; Light's eyes were cast in the color of honey by the glowing afternoon. "Might I fall back on stereotypical American rudeness and ask just who you are before I introduce myself?"

"Yagami Raito; Light, in English. Sayu's brother."

"Stephen Loud," came the reply. "Normal boring American highschool exchange student. Nice to meet you."

Light inclined his head in polite acknowledgement of his words. "とおよおにはじめました." He leaned back on his hands a directed his attention to the four girls batting the ball back and forth and splashing each other in the shallow surf; the reems of his shirt fell open fully to leave his chest fully exposed for all to see. Light didn't seem to notice until his companion sat straight up in shock and demanded,

"Dude, do you live in the gym or something!? That's practically a 12-pack you've got there!"

Light looked down at his compact and incredibly toned body, blinking at his highly defined abs before responding to him with a joking, "it's hard to gain any weight when all you do is eat rice and practice Karate."

"Ok, I may be American but that does not mean I'm about to fall for that blatant sterotype!"

Light smiled. "Ok, I was kidding about rice being the only thing I eat, but I'm entirely serious about the Karate; I'm a black belt."

"What are you planning to do with that body of yours? Porn? Underwear modeling?"

He snorted. "Try cop; family business for five generations now."

"A police officer? Really?"

"Is that surprising?"

"Only because I want to do the same thing, though I was aiming more for FBI or CIA."

"The Feds?" he whistled between his teeth. "Well then, let's test out your investigative skills."

"How so?" he quirked up an eyebrow almost nervously.

"Something is very wrong with this picture," Light gestured around them. "Can you tell me exactly what it is that doesn't belong?"

"How long do I have to answer that question?"

"No rush," he replied calmly. For the next half hour he peered around at the happiness surrounding them while Light cat napped in the warmth of the summer day while somehow still remaining propped up on his elbows, racking his brain for anything that came even remotely close to being odd. He came up empty time and time again; finally he sighed.

"I give up."

"Because you're looking in the wrong place." Gently turning his head with a warm hand against his jaw, Light directed the younger man's gaze into the correct position. "Do not turn your head, but look with your eyes. In the Sea Oats. What do you see?" he looked where he'd been told and went stiff. There, crouching all but hidden amongst the tall reeds was a man in a suit and tie. "He's been on my tail for five days, thinks that I haven't noticed. I knew the first damn day."

"Do you think he's dangerous?"

He shook his head and laughed. "I think he's law enforcement, though not native. I'd know him if he was." Light replied as he released him. "My father-the Police Chief-is envolved in a rather high profile case at the moment. One that even L has taken interest in; no doubt he's got multiple shadows looking in on the family of everyone involved."

"Big case?" Stephen's interest was undeniably peeked. "Is it?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Kira."

"Wow." The younger man sounded impressed. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a hand in that; Kira is history, not high profile."

"It very well would," he nodded solemnly. Silence fell between them. Light's eyes began to drift closed once more after days without sleep. He could feel the other's eyes still resting on him like a weight.

"If he's really a professional tail," Stephen finally piped up after what seemed like forever, "how did you catch him out, especially so fast?"

"An aspect of martial art's training; always be fully aware of everything-ever bird, ever blade of grass, every speck of dirt-around you." The smooth reply rolled off is lips like sweet nectar; the idolizing gaze made him grin. "Take that to heart; you'll use it later on, I'm sure."

"It feels strange," he said, "meeting someone who I may have-with time-been able to call my friend just three hours before I'm shipped back home on a plane."

"Better to make for one's self friends instead of enemies. Even if they are friends that you will never see again." Light informed him sagely. "It was pleasant meeting you, Stephen. I hope that you have enjoyed your stay in Japan?"

"Very much so," he confirmed. "It was a nice change of pace." With that, Light drifted back off to sleep. Little did either of them know that they would once more be brought together because of the Kira case, though when that time came it would prove to be on much less friendly terms.


	2. Beast of Typhon

2 Beast of Typhon (テュポンの獣)

It was actually beginning to get on Light's nerves, and that was never a good thing to do; the urgent throbbing of the obsidian shard against his throat warning him that he was being watched everywhere he went was actually begining to drive him up the wall. He'd spend time with his mother and sister during the day, all the while feeling it thudding its little stone fists wildly against his throat. At night he'd go up into his room and carry out his role as Kira, writing down name after name in the Death Note while all too aware of the watcher standing just outside the pool of light cast by the streetlamp beneath his window; he'd tightly draw the blinds as the stone would again begin to throb and shudder as if to burst itself to pieces. After two weeks of this it finally got to the point where he was so nervous about the ever present shadow that he was on constant calming drafts just to stop himself from throwing his desk through the bedroom wall and taking bottles full of melatonin to even have a hope of a few hours of sleep. Having had far more than enough, he ripped a sutra from the depths of his desk and put pen to paper, quickly scrawling out a message.

牙、とすぐにできるように私を訪問来てください。それが急務となっている！

Opening his window and doing a cursory scan of the area with his eyes he tossed the rice paper out into the night, watching it erupt into flames and vanish immediately. Retracting back into his room while aware of the shadowed figure lurking in the shadows outside, he settle back into his rolling office chair to wait. It wasn't that much later that a response fluttered in through his window to land beside his hand.

どこにいますか。ときに私はそこにあるべき？私をテキスト。

Grinning to himself Light picked up his cellphone to send a short text.

Come as quickly as you can. I have a shadow and a plan.

It loaded for a moment before sending; seconds later he had an answer.

How does tomorrow work? Will you have everything ready by then?

One day? That'd be cutting it close, but he could manage it he was sure of that much. Grin transforming into a positively evil sneer, Light snapped his phone shut and slid it back into his pocket before pulling up a window on his computer.

He'd fallen asleep after hours of preparation only to awake to find his sister standing over him with a look of amusement plastered to her face and a pillow cradled to his chest.

"Light!" She poked him in the ribs with her foot.

"Nrrg!" He grumbled, batting at her uselessly with an arm made limp and heavy by sleep. "GowaySayuIsleepin." Light slurred, burying his face in his matress.

"There's someone here. She says that she's your girlfriend and that you are the one who arranged the date. And by the way," Sayu grinned again, "it's two in the afternoon."

At that point he sat bolt upright, coppery eyes wide. "Say again?"

"It's 2 o'clock."

"Not about the time! The other thing!"

"She said that she's your girlfriend you Kōtō!"

"Shit! Kiba!" He must have leapt six feet in the air before landing barefoot on the cold wooden floor. "Get out, I have to change! Go and make her some tea or something! And I have to take a shower! Shit! Shit! Shi-ack!" The sheets had wound themselves around his ankles like a serpent, binding them together and making him fall; Sayu ran out laughing at her older brother before Light could get up. Grabbing the first clean clothes that he could reach he leapt into the shower and washed his hair in record time. Drying himself with a towel and quickly redressing he ran so fast that he almost tumbled down the stairs and found Kiba sitting at the table with Sayu. She looked up as he came in, taking in his hair darkened by the residual moisture of the shower and the khaki pants and slim-fitting black zip-down shirt which clung to his perfect body. Kiba smiled, revealing fangs in place of canines, and shifted to one side so that her ebony ringlets spilled down her back.

"朝,月. Your sister tells me that you just woke up." Sayu couldn't help the grin that spread across her face at the look at had settled over her brother's emaculate features; it made it immediately clear that he and Kiba were a lot more than 'potential' partners. "If you're really so tired, we can reschedule."

"You've been on a train for four and a half hours, Kiba. I wouldn't drag you all the way out here from Sendai only to ditch you in favor of sleeping. Not alone, at least."

"Light Yagami!" His mother shrieked from where she'd been washing dishes at the sink.

"He was only kidding, ." Kiba lied with a silken purr, getting to her feet and sliding into his arms. "Light is a very good boy; no matter how hard I try, I can never get him to be naughty.

"Let's get going before the idea of elaborating on exactly what you've tried crosses your mind." Light snickered, taking her hand gently in his own and leading her out of the house into the afternoon sun.

"So," she asked, pressing against him and whispering into his ear so as not to be overheard, "what's this plan of yours entailing, exactly?"

"It's simple, really. All that we have to do," he grinned and began walking again, "is catch the bus."

"You called us all back, L?"

The strange detective simply stared up at them with his ghostly eyes for a moment before answering. "Yes. I wanted you all back here at once to tell you of the latest development; you'll all be staying here until the case is solved. It's just easier for everyone that way." L bit into a cream puff only to have its pale innards squirm out all over his fingers; frowning, he licked them clean in much the same manner as a cat cleaning its paws. Resigned, the task force members took seats around the room; by this point they knew better than to waste their energy in hopeless attempts to argue with L. "Sayu has turned up nothing unexpected of a 17 year old teen age girl. I'm pulling her tail."

"What about Light?" the Police Chief asked.

"He spends a great deal of time in his room; up all night most times, in fact, with his light on. And he and his sister have devised a plan to hack into my database and pull the Kira case out from under us, which won't work considering the fact that neither of them has any experience; I doubt that they could hack a lunch box, let alone my mainframe." To their total shock, L laughed. "I think I like Light-kun. He reminds me of, well, me; both a compliment and an insult, I'm afraid."

"I told both of them that I didn't want them involved in this!" Soichiro growled. "Why do my children never listen to me? Paganism is dangerous! I have to stop them!"

"Yagami-san, your son is a Pagan." L informed him.

"What!?"

"His tail sent me the names of his Coven and I ran them against listed members of both Circles Midnight and Daybreak; he encountered them when he found that Light had returned to Tokyo from Sendai." He pushed his empty plate away and took up a small dish of candies. "Counting Light, it consists of four members. Jalgan Darke, American transfer student, member of Circle Midnight for three years; Hideyoshi Shikoku, member of Circle Midnight for four years; Kiba Yamamori, born into a Pagan family, she's been a member of Circle Midnight for her entire life. I've encountered her before; she's rather dangerous when she cares to be. Their deities are Cthonic; Echidna and Setukh or, as I've refered to him before, Typhon. In fact-no doubt due in part to your family's decent and Light's uncanny resemblance to the human form of the Father of Monsters-they seem to believe that he is Typhon."

"So that's it, then? You're arresting my son because he's a Pagan?"

"He hasn't broken any laws yet; he's still on this side of the Code, at least as far as we can tell. Even if he had, that'd be the Regulator's job." Renold interjected. "Though, now a days, those corrupted bigot bastards are too busy preening to get up off their fat asses and work! If it helps at all, your son-the leader of their Coven-seems to believe in unification of Paganistic and Wiccan beliefs into something that he has christened 'Grey Magic'."

"Unfortunately it seems that the results of his survaylence have proven inconclusive; I'll have the tail continue working for another few weeks just in case, but I fear that it will prove to be an obsolete method of gathering information, and thus as waste of our time. We need to get into his room and find out what exactly he is doing; it may well be the only way we're able to say if he's Kira or not. It certainly doesn't help him that the icon of worship of the Kira-crazy masses that have begun to sprout up around the world is the same symbol as the Idol of Typhon, the Set Beast or Sha."

"What's a Sha?" Matsuda asked, shifting nervously.

"The Cthonic form of Typhon only associated with him post transformation." It was Genko who spoke this time. "It's roughly the size of a lion, though it is said to have the power to change its size and shape at will. It is a monsterous beast with skin like stone unlike any other creature to ever exist; it has the body of a wolf, the head of a jackal, the tail of a serpent, the teeth of a shark, the talons of an eagle, the ears of a fox and the horns of a Dragon. Its power is believed to be derived from blood; the more it bleeds-the more it tastes blood-the stronger it becomes."

"The beast came about from a young Prince who lived in a time long before history; his name was Kouya Yagami, and his time was one before the differentiation between White and Black magic existed. He was the heir to the throne, the eldest of his father's three children, but he alone didn't share his families views; he believed that those without magic were inferior to those with it, and ought to be dominated." Renold explained. "He is accredited with being the founder of Black Magic, and as he slowly began to go insane his extremist ideals grew all the more evident. He was eventually disinherited and expelled from the kingdom, but even left out in the cold his madness continued to grow; it is said that he challenged the Gods, and was transformed into a Hell Beast as punishment. Whatever the truth of his transformation-regardless of the debate of whether he was ever even human at all-Kouya came to be known to many cultures as many different names. Typhon, to the Ancient Greeks who refered to him as 'a tower storm whose head brushed the sky and shot fires from his eyes'. Nidhogg to the Norse, who knew him as 'the Dragon that drained the life of the World Tree of Odin by devouring it from the roots up'. Shinigami, to your own people; a spirit who tempted humans towards death by invoking thoughts of suicide and murder. Setukh, God of Chaos to the Egyptians, who were the first to call him Sha and accredited him with saving their society from Apep the Destroyer. Even to the dawn of Christianity he is mentions, both as the Serpent who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden and as the beast of the Apocolypse, 666."

"So what you're saying is this thing is walking around out there in modern society even as we speak?" Matsuda's eyes were huge with fear as he shifted nervously around in his chair.

"Most likely not," he soothed gently. "About 1,000 years after his last mention in history, Typhon disappeared. No one knows to where, or why. Some say he was slain. Some believe he was sealed away somewhere. Others say he left this world for the void of dimensions beyond, never to return again. It's as much of a debated question as his original origins."

"His mate, Echidna, however is still out there, so the next time any of you happen to see a snake woman I suggest that you shoot and run first, and ask questions later."

"Genko, you're scaring them." L chided. "We'll give all of you a range of powerful protection charms to keep you safe from many forms of spiritual and physical attack. Never fear."

"What's the next step in this, then?" Aizawa asked.

"Nothing," came the smooth reply. "For now, we wait."

The bus to the amusement park screeched to a stop at the curb and hissed at its would-be passengers before opening its doors to allow them to board. They got on together, both grinning triumphantly when, just according to plan, their shadow boarded in their wake and sat directly behind them.

"How long until we get there? You know that I am not at all familiar with Tokyo." She could see it in his chocolate covered expresso bean eyes that he had immediately gleaned the meaning in her words.

"Well, there are two more bus stops and a 20 minute drive before we get to where we're going."

Two more stops before whatever it was that he had planned happened? This was sure to be interesting. Kiba snuggled against Light's arm, closing her eyes that were green as the forest after it had rained. Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop. She picked up her head just as a shady looking man who was clearly nothing but trouble walked on with a loaded pistol swinging carelessly at his waist.

"Drive," he barked at the bus driver, who immediately did as he was told. "Don't stop, do you hear me?" Once he had received a terror-stiffened nod, the highjacker turned to the crowd on the bus. "You will all pass up your valuables and put them in this bag," he tossed it at one of the nearest passengers. "The weapon is real and it is loaded. Don't think I'll hesitate to use it if any of you get any ideas and try to resist."

As he continued speaking, Light edged down below the seat and slowly, carefully drew up the leg of his pants to draw the ankle gun that he had hidden on his person. He came up with the same measured slowness to leave it resting in full view on his lap. Their pursuer saw it and reacted just as he had planned.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Kid?" he hissed. "You'll get yourself and everyone else on this bus killed!"

"I know what I am doing, thank you; I'm a cop in every aspect but the bag and the degree. I've been deputized ten times beginning when I was eight years of age and have aided the NPA in solving over 40 cases. I've reached my senior year and am soon to graduate from the academy. I can garuntee that I can handle myself with a gun a thousand times better than this imbecile!"

"Regardless of that, a bullet will still put you down! You're human, just as much as he is." Untrue, not that he knew this. "Or are you wearing a cevlar vest underneath those tight fitting clothes of yours?" When Light didn't response he took that as a que to plow onwards triumphantly. "Besides this bus is filled with civilians, many of whom are children. You can't just go and open fire, even if you're as good as you claim!"

"So what do we do?" he shot back. "Pray to Kira?"

"We give him what he wants, he leaves and no one gets hurt."

"What are you, his accomplice or something!?"

"Wha-? No!" He seemed genuinely shocked by the assumption. "I'm law enforcement!"

"Not Japanese law enforcement; if you were-even a new one-I'd know you. Besides, your accent is clearly American!"

"That's because I am American; an FBI agent!"

"I don't believe you!" He snarled darkly.

"Here," carefully so as not to attract attention, he handed over a small wallet like object. "My ID." Light took it and quickly flipped it open.

Raye Penber

Federal Bureau of Invesitagation

Triumphant, he closed it again and handed it back.

"Now put that thing away before he sees it!"

"What's an FBI agent doing in Japan? You're a bit far from home, Raye." He noted as he replaced the weapon. "Visiting family?"

"Family to be; my fiancé dragged me here." Not entirely a lie, but not entirely true either.

"You there! Stop talking!" Light let out a wounded yelp when the butt of the pistol came down on his shoulder. "Hand over that necklace, pretty boy!"

"Don't!" Too late. He'd already pounced for his attacker and grabbed at the gun, which went off; the plastic be-be rebounded off his chest and vanished somewhere below the seats as a grin that could only be described as sanguinary spread across Light's handsome face, twisting it into something blood chilling.

"A bit of a lesson on how to correctly rob someone from the son of a cop; learn to identify for yourself between a fake gun and a real one! This," he ripped it out of the robber's hands as he menaced him backwards towards the front of the bus, towering far above him with a homicidal glint in his eyes; the chestnut orbs were glowing red as pools of blood, "is a fake gun. A harmless be-be pistol, to be exact. This," he drew his own weapon and leveled it at his chest, "is a real one. With very real, very harmful bullets."

"L-Look man, about the 'pretty boy' comment-."

"GET OFF THE DAMN BUS BEFORE I BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!" The driver slammed on the breaks in surprise at his shout, making the bus fishtail wildly across the high way before coming to a stop on the shoulder of the road. Throwing open the doors the terrified would be hi-jacker fled the bus into the street and was struck down by a passing car. Satisfied, Light cracked his neck and lowered the gun before walking down the stairs to stand over the body with nothing but cold unfeeling displayed on his face. "It would seem that Kira isn't the only one capable of making these sons of bitches think twice. Ille qui non fecerit legem oportet morientur." Those who do not obey the laws of man must die; Light allowed himself a small smirk at the Latin phrase; how fun it was to instill chaos upon mortals by judging them while simotaniously violating their precious laws. He became aware of the shell shocked gaze of the FBI agent who stood frozen on the stairs as Kiba sashayed over to touch his arm.

"We've got what we need here, I assume?" she said quietly. Light nodded,

"I've confirmed that he is most definitely one of L's hired hounds. That means that I cannot simply strike him down with Kira's Justice; he's not the same as all the others. For now, I'm surely only of passing interest to L because of my relation to Father, who is working on the Kira case. Were I to act as Kira when I dispose of this nuisance it would be as good as howling to the dales that I am the one behind all of this beautiful, bloody chaos."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Handle things the old fashioned way, of course. I always did prefer to be hands on." That said, the frigid pair walked off and vanished from the scene before any of the other stunned passengers could notice their absence.

6 days later…

The FBI Agent had seemed very surprised at how good at vanishing he was, never realizing the truth that he had simply doubled back and was now loping along at a leisurely pace behind him. Never guessed that he was no longer the hunter, but the hunted. His prey was walking through one of Tokyo's many alleys now, the sour stench of confusion and mounting fear rolling off of him in waves. The scrapping of his stealthy paws against the dusted cement made his quarry stop and turn to look every few minutes, searching in vain for his pursuer; he'd pause and then resume walking the moment that his prey did, enjoying toying with him like a cat with a mouse. Finally deciding that he had played with him enough he closed in, letting his eyes glow out feral red in the dark and rainy night as a feral growl erupted up his throat from deep within his muscular barrel chest. The man froze instantly, then slowly turned to face him with a look of terror plastered across his features. Letting out a yell of fright he took off running through the darkened rainy streets with the foot falls of the beast directly behind him and its hot fetid breath on the back of his neck. Left. Right. Left. Right. A dead end rose up before him and he whirled around only to find the monster blocking his sole route of escape, long tongue hanging out through parted fang filled jaws pouring greenish drool. His pointed ears shifted and twitched against his horned head, scanning for sounds outside his quarries rapid heartbeat and the rare passing of car tiles on the streets not far away. Nothing. Good; he wouldn't be interrupted. Twin tails lashed the cold air as fangs as long as steak knives flashed in the light of the watery moon, set deep into blackish-purple gums. He drew forward slowly, still snarling as his razor talons cut deep into the thin layer of dirt and grime that had formed over the hard cement alley floor. Unable to hold his hunger back any further he sprang with a roar just as the agent dove for his weapon; gunshots rang out through the pattering rain alongside piercing screams.


	3. Darkness

3 Darkness

"Light, where have you been! It's after midnight! We were so worried abou-Is that blood!" Sachiko dragged her son into the light of the kitchen to inspect his gore-slicked state with a lick of panic. "Are you injured? What happened? Are you bleeding?"

"I'm fine, Mom." He assured, gently pushing away her nervously flapping hands. "I didn't see the bar fight coming until I took a sake bottle to the teeth. But I've already taken care of it; no emergency, dental or otherwise. Unless you count my clothes. This blood is just residual."

"But Light, are you sure?"

"Completely, don't worry." Light turned and began to make his way up the stairs. "I'm going to clean up and go to bed."

"Oh, well o-okay. If you're sure that you're alright."

"I'm sure." Rushing down the hallway before she had a chance to ask him anything more, Light closed the door to his bedroom and latched it tightly. For a moment he stood there, breathing deeply in the darkness as the high of the kill continued to thrum through him like electricity; Light turned his attention to the mirror and curled up his lips into a snarl at his own reflection, revealing dark blood and strips of flesh caught between still sharpened teeth as his russet eyes glowed a hellish hue of red. Striping away his soiled shirt he admired himself in the mirror for a moment, marveling at the thick scarlet painted across the tan canvas of his skin. It was always so much more fun, so much more fulfilling, to commit the kill himself with his own teeth. Turning his head to one side he began licking himself clean, stifling purrs of delight at the renewed taste of blood in his mouth as his tongue rasped over his shoulder and chest so as not to be overheard; only once unable to contort and stretch his body any further he washed what little he couldn't reach away with a hot shower before dumping his bloodied clothing in the wash and climbing between the warm covers of his bed wearing nothing but boxers. "So, L." He muttered to himself as he stared up at the fan slowly revolving above him on the ceiling. "What will you do now?"

"Up! Get up! All of you get up now!" They startled back to full awareness from various states of drowse to find the detective leaping around the room waving his arms wildly as if someone had lit his pants of fire, brandishing dango sticks in both hands like swords and scuttling about like an angered crab.

"L-?"

"RYUUZAKI!"

"Ryuuzaki," the Chief amended quickly in a voice weighed down by sleep, "what's going on? Is it Kira?"

"No, it's Light's tail." Genko said grimly, appearing in the doorway with Renold behind her. "He's dead. He was murdered two hours ago."

"Was it-?" Aizawa began.

"No," Renold cut in. "He was attacked, but whether it was animal human or otherwise has yet to be determined."

"We need to all get to the scene now!" L announced loudly, throwing open the door to the hotel room and rushing out into the hallway. "No time to waste! Hurry! Hurry!"

"L, come back!" Renold darted out after him and the others were left to follow swiftly behind, taking the stairs at a run instead of waiting for the elevator and jumping into their cars, peeling away from the curb and streaking off into the rapidly dying night.

"Stop here!" They screeched to a halt and followed them towards the mouth of a dead end alleyway from which the stench of blood issued in a rude assault on their senses.

"Careful," Genko warned, clutching her lead pipe in two hands like a sword. "Whatever attacked him could still be hanging around."

Drawing their guns they tentatively followed the trio into the narrow alleyway. The mutilated form lay torn to shreds on the alley floor before them, flesh stripped and bones broken and blood splashed ten feet up the walls on all sides; the only clear spot on the brick was cast in the shape of the sillouhette of a nightmare creature the likes of which none of the task force had ever seen.

"The Beast of Typhon!" L looked absolutely horrified, his eyes-if such a thing were even physically possible-becoming even wider than ever before. "I…I was wrong! I was wrong to say that he had disappeared, that he himself was no longer a threat. Typhon…is back!"

"What do we do now, L?" Renold maundered, tone growling low in his chest. "Replacing his tail would be too dangerous."

"Dangerous as well as useless." He agreed. "As I have said before, we need to get into his bed room! Figure out what exactly it is that he's been doing every night! Yagami-san," he turned to the Police Chief as he spoke, "may I have your permission to rig your house with cameras and wire taps?"

"If it will help to clear the name of my family, you can do anything that you wish." He said, sounding deflated. "In four days Sachiko and Sayu are starting a cooking class together which will have them out of the house for three hours every other day. With Light it's rather more difficult to say; he comes and goes from the house whenever it pleases him to do so."

"Well then, we'll simply have the wire team wait outside until he leaves," L said matter of factly. "We must get into that bed room!"

It had been three days since he'd done away with that nuisance of a shadow; Light had had to through away those clothes, as the blood had refused to come out. Kiba had been staying with them in the house, and they now lay together on Light's bed, her head pillowed on his chest and his arm draped loosely around her narrow pointed shoulders. It was dim in his bedroom with the curtains drawn against the brightness of the afternoon outside; the only sounds was the steady beating of his heart and their calm breathing as he lightly stroked her long black hair and she nestled closer against him in response.

"Look at us," Light finally broke the silence. "Two creatures of shadow hiding from the sun. Just waiting patiently for our turn to come out and play."

"That's the first time I've heard you acknowledge the truth of what you are within a hundred feet of a member of your family." Kiba reached up to finger the collar of his button-up white shirt delicately. "Why the concealment?"

"They're…wary of Paganism. Believe it's heretical. Unholy." Light's stagnate expression contorted into a sneer of wicked mirth. "My parents would scold me; claim that I could do better with myself than Black Magic."

"What could be a greater thing for your child to become than a God?"

"None," he replied. "But I don't think 'Father of Monsters' was quite what they had in mind."

"They'll see. They'll all see. We'll rebuild our empire as it was once, beloved." Reaching over to the dish that his mother had brought up earlier that morning she plucked up a blood red fruit and held it out for him. "And then it will no longer be mere apples that you feast on."

The crisp fruit crackled as he sank his teeth into it, clear juices running down over his full lips and thin chin. The apple fell with a small thud to roll across the wooden floor as Light flipped her onto her back to get on top, beginning to ravage her neck with a flurry of kisses just as the door to his room clicked open and an unfamiliar voice announced, "Well, it would certainly appear that someone needs to decide between breakfast and sex," as a slightly nervous titter that he instantly recognized as belonging to his sister ran out. Light bolted upright, only half-aware of the fact that he was still straddling Kiba's hips as she calmly looked on at proceedings.

"S-Sayu!" He yelped, narrowing his eyes at his younger sister and he bespecticaled and slightly older companion. "Wha-?"

"Before you start to yell at me for not knocking, let me remind you of the fact that you told me to wake you up if you were still sleeping when Mikami got here. I don't have the ability to peer through solid objects, so I didn't realize that you weren't sleeping, but as I'm sure we can both see," she gestured to her companion, "he's here."

"Mi-? Oh, of course!" Quickly launching himself off the bed he hurried over and, seamlessly assuming the business-like demeanor that Sayu had always associated with her older brother for as long as she could remember, bowed in greeting before offering his hand. "Light Yagami, Sayu's older brother."

"Teru Mikami. It's nice to meet you." A polite bow in greeting later he said "is there somewhere that we can go where we won't be…interrupted?"

"Here is fine, come in." Ushering them both inside he closed and locked the door, dipping low to toss the partially eaten apple into the trash before indicating the laptop sitting on the desk. "Can you use this, or would a desktop be preferable? There's an old one stashed up in the attic somewhere that still works; I'll go and get it for you is that would be better."

"This will be fine, thank you." Mikami cast a sideways glance at the rolling chair. "May I?"

"Of course." He pulled it out and allowed him to take a seat before the computer. "How long, exactly, will this take?"

"Are we breaking into the Police Agency's network, or L's?"

Light and Sayu looked at each other for a moment before nodding and answering in sync, "L's."

"Well," he hesitated for a moment before recovering his poise, "it'll take about an hour. Maybe more, dependant on security. Anything specific that the two of you are after?"

"We want to work this case on our own as much as humanly possible," Light told him. "So let's limit things to suspects and go from there."

He nodded, plugging a few cords and a flash drive into the laptop and beginning to type quickly. The trio remained in silence, watching him work as his fingers danced fluidly over the keys. After a short period of time Light went back to the bed and Kiba leaned against his shoulder. Time passed, marked only by the hacker's occasional quiet mutterings of broken up phrases such as 'doesn't seem to have rovers' and 'easy. Too easy'. Then, at last, the clacking of the keys stopped.

"By God!"

"Oh!" It was his sister's shock that made him stiffen. "Light!"

"What? What's wrong?" he demanded, rushing over. He pushed them out of the way and froze; displayed on the screen was a list comprised of only one suspect; blinking back at him from the laptop was his own face. Ice water surged down his spine, freezing his blood and tensing his muscles until they throbbed painfully and his body began to shake as it pooled in his stomach. Eyes wide. Eyes so wide that he thought they were going to pop out of his head and roll away across the floor. He was wrong to think that his tail had been the result of a mere cursory examination. How hadn't he seen it coming? How?

"Nii-san!"

"Light!"

Kiba was gripping his arm tightly and Sayu was shaking him roughly by the shoulders in an attempt to bring him back to himself. Blood was driping steadily down onto the wooden floor; he slowly unclenched his fingers from where they'd clenched into tight fists and left bloody crescents behind in the soft flesh.

"This," his voice shook with an uncharacteristic loss of control as his heart thundered out of his chest, "is clearly a mistake!"

"He's right. At least, sort of." The hacker said, lounging easily in the rolling office chair as his black hair fell hap hazardly about his face. "Read this," he motioned to the information logged beneath the picture.

夜神月 Yagami Raito

Age: 23 years

Attends: To-ho University College, Sendai

IQ Level: 170+

Connection to Police: Strong; closely connected to Police Force of NPA due to having worked with them in the past and his Father's position as Police Chief.

Sect: Pagan; Circle Midnight

Important Notes on Suspect: Known to be possessed of ideas of justice and magic that can undoubtable be classified as extreme. IQ level equal to that of L's, rendering him capable of competing with L directly. % likely hood of being Kira – High at almost 90%. Confirmation – None. Evidence – None. Report gathered from tail – inconclusive. Tailed by FBI Agent Raye Penber; recently deceased by animal attack.

"Pagan?" Sayu demanded, looking somewhat nervous as she leaned in towards him to make sure that no one overheard. "You joined the Midnighters? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't exactly say anything with Mom and Dad sitting there." He hissed back. "'Oh, hey, I'm back for the first time in three years. By the way, I'm a Pagan now.' Dad probably would have shot me in the face!"

"Then why didn't you tell me after that?"

"You didn't ask."

"It's always the same damn thing with you, Nii-san!" Sayu threw up her hands in exasperation. "I can understand why they think you could be Kira; you're a stubborn son of a bitch!"

"If I might say something?" Mikami piped up. "I think it would be amazing if you truly were Kira. The other worshipers would be floored if they learned that I had met God and hacking into the files of his greatest enemy."

Light turned back to Sayu and glared at his sister with one eyebrow hitched upwards. "You never told me that he's a crazy!"

"I'm not crazy," Mikami turned off the screen and swiftly detached all of the wires and flash drives that he had plugged into the machine before standing up. "You're witches or whatever, right; I'm going out on a limb here, seeing as you were listed as a 'Pagan' in the World's Greatest Detective's files. You believe in Monsters and Magic then, don't you?"

"…" Light sighed. "Yes. Why?"

"Kira has been killing off those who commit acts of evil against the established norms of society the world over, not just in one place. Only a God could have such power as that. So, by that logic, Kira must be God."

"Looking at it from your perspective, I suppose, makes a bit of sense," Light allowed after a moment," but you're still crazy."

"I'll show you out," Sayu said.

"Thank you," he replied politely. "I wish you all luck in beating L, and enlightenment to the truth before you offend Lord Kira." The door clicked softly shut behind them; left alone with Kiba he sank down onto the bed and put his head into his hands, the buzz of the recognition of a growing cult of mere humans overshadowed and squashed beneath the enormous looming shape that was L. L's eyes on his back. L's presence thick in the room. He could practically feel the detective breathing down his neck, his hands locked around his throat. So close. So close to catching him, already with everything but concrete evidence.

"Kiba," he moaned, "what am I going to do? More will come; they'll be watching. Always watching!"

Gently, she stroked up and down his arm with one reassuring hand. "We prepare, beloved. Light's memories are getting in the way of yours, Typhon; don't you remember those times when we stood together against great armies and ancient foes? Zeus in Greece. Apep in Egypt. Oden in Scandinavia. No mere man could stand against us when our own creators, or fellow Gods themselves, could not!"

"But I'm mortal now, if not human. Vulnerable to age and disease and death. No longer a true threat to their kind; slain and reborn as little more than a man."

"I am here with you, to help return you to your rightful place." She soothed him gently, taking his face in her hands. "I will take the Death Note with me when I return to Sendai tomorrow; Jalgan will take over its use until you are safely back with us. The Coven House will be put under the most powerful curses and hexes that we can weave without having them noticed by the Humans. No one will touch you!" She kissed him gently. "This time of uncertainly shall pass, just as all the others have." His arms wound around her waist and pulled her back to him as she tried to draw away, warm hands pushing up her shirt to find their way onto smooth bare skin as hers found purchase in his auburn tresses and forced back his head to leave his throat bared to a stinging caress. A deep moan thrummed from the depths of his chest as she pulled back to observe him with eyes like antifreeze, lips stained cherry red with the tracery of blood that was now trickling down his neck and over his collar bone. "Oh, I know how you love to receive pain as much as you enjoy giving it."

"Almost as much," he corrected near breathlessly; the slight sting of the bite was nothing compared to the level of pleasure-pain they could achieve on a good night. "But you know all of my kinks and vices after all this time."

"A couple 1000 years together tends to have that result," she purred back. "And another couple 1000 won't change it." Falling backwards onto the bed the pair immediately picked up where they'd been interrupted as the sun began to sink below the horizon outside the bedroom window.


	4. Watching

4 Watching

They'd been lurking outside of the Yagami house for three days before Light finally left the house empty to walk hand in hand down the street with a young woman with long black hair who they could only assume was his girlfriend. Wasting no time and rushing into the empty house Matsuda and Ide wired the downstairs sparsely with cameras and speakers before hurrying up the stairs.

"Remember what L warned us about," Ide said; both drew the hematite medallions for protection against any spells that may have been set out to thwart them before stepping into the bedroom beyond and tightly shutting the door behind them. The sheets on the bed were rumpled and badly askew as if they had been recently used for something much more active than simply sleeping, but other than that small discrepancy the space was clean near to the point of obsession. The desk was clear and devoid of even the smallest speck of dust, the rolling chair pushed in completely, the lap top closed but still warm from recent use, soft blue light on the side of the appliance blinking silently on and off as it charged. Nothing was out of place on the wardrobe pushed firmly against the opposite wall either. The floor was kept perfectly clear to walk across.

"I can't believe that Light, of all people, is our suspect. We've known him since he was a little boy. He's the chief's son; the 'Golden Boy'." Ide grumbled, sighing heavily. "Then again, we didn't really know the Chief as well as we thought we did either."

"We can't really fault him for not telling us about the whole Magic thing though. Me, I'm the dumb ass of the squad; if I suddenly announced that I was a Witch you'd call me an idiot and tell me to sit back down. If the Chief did the same thing you'd have him forcefully admitted." Matsuda pointed out, walking over to the closet.

"I suppose that you're right about that much." He allowed, balancing precariously atop the rolling office chair in order to begin wiring the vent near the ceiling of the room with a concealed microphone. "What are you doing over there? Get busy!"

"I'm looking for a good place to hide a camera," Matsuda informed him casually. "Plus, why not look around when we have the chance. We might find evidence to exonerate him."

"We don't have a search warrant!" He grunted; the grate was stubborn and refused to come free without a great deal of protest.

"We don't need one; it's the Chief's house and he gave us permission." Matsuda pointed out, opening the closet door to reveal the rows of carefully hung shirts and pants beyond, all meticulously ironed and in the casual-dressy style that had been Light's trade mark for a long time. "Some things never change; Light certainly does love his clothes."

"And I would certainly love to see you rigging cameras!" Ide's tone was dry.

"I'm working on it, Jesus!" Stashing a camera in the depths of said closet, Matsuda closed the door tightly and moved to the wardrobe and began to methodically open drawers. Socks, all carefully balled up and arranged by color. A door of underclothes, which he swiftly shut once more with a look of slight embarrassment. More fastidiously folded, starched and ironed clothing. "Hey, look at this." Reaching into one of the top drawers he pulled out a small draw string bag made of purple velvet and turned it out; a small handful of uncut crystals skittered across the top of the darkly stained wardrobe like cockroaches startled by someone suddenly turning on the lights. "They're energy crystals, just like our charms. L told me about some of them. This," he held up a soft white stone streaked through with tiger stripes of black, grey and brown, "is a Black Ethiopian Opal, which is a crystal used to boost experiences in Sex and Spiritual Worship. This one," he held up a cloudy blue-violet stone, "is Blue Aragonite which relieves stress and this one," he held up an olive green stone, "is Serpentine, which protects against Snake Poison and evens out mood swings."

"Fascinating," he drawled. "You know what's also fascinating? Rigging cameras like L told us to!"

Do you think that Light might be bi-polar?"

"Matsud-ack!" The grate came loose at last with one final tug and it was all that he could do to prevent himself from careening backwards off of the rolling chair onto the hard floor below. "Focus, damn it! We need more than one camera!"

"S-Sorry Ide!" Brushing the scattered crystals bag into the little bag so that they wouldn't be missed and replacing it in the drawer, Matsuda did his best to refocus on the given task at hand. "Where should I put them?"

"Get an angle on the desk and an angle on the bed," he instructed. "That will give us a full view of the entire room when combined with the camera in the closet." Ide replaced the grate in the vent and then moved to the windowsill to begin wiring a second one.

"Oh, uh…r-right! I knew that!" Taking the senior officer's advice, Matsuda quickly set up two more cameras. "Alright, I think I'm done."

"Good. Me too." Straightening up, Ide cast a cursory glance at his watch. "Let's get out of here; Sayu and Sachiko won't be back for a good while, but Light could return at any moment."

People crowded about them on all sides, pushing and straining towards their already over packed trains or towards the crush of bodies mercilessly trying to cram themselves all at once out of the exit of the building that was sadly lacking in size to handle such a load. Just another normal day in the Tokyo-Eki train station, a suffocating commute that Light had long ago grown used to. The train into Sendai was just pulling in to the station as they strode out onto the platform, Light carrying her bag to leave her hands free to hold the Eki-ben that she had bought to eat on the long train ride back. Wary of another tail, he set her bag down and curled his fingers in the belt-loops of her jeans to crush their lips together in a kiss as he scruptulously passed her the Death Note.

"If Jalgan fucks this up even one little bit, so help me-." He threatened in a low kvetch, the curtain of her black hair concealing the movements of his speak from any potential watchers.

"He won't." She assured him, slipping it into her bag, "he knows better. But, if he does, I'll be watching. I can take over for him immediately should he prove…incompitant in carrying out the will of his sworn Lord. They'll never suspect a thing."

"Perfect," he released her, allowing Kiba to join the crowd jostling to get onto the train; Light stood on the platform and watched it pull away and begin to vanish down the tunnel. Only when the train had disappeared completely did he turn back towards the doors and begin to make his way out of the station and out once more into the latening afternoon.

"The cameras seem to be working, as do the mircophones." Renold noted, walking up behind the couch where Matsuda and L-the former sitting normally and the later perching in his usual strange manner-were posted, staring at the monitors. Sayu was sitting on the living room floor watching TV; some horrendous romance film filled with unrealistic mush starring one of Japan's current favorite actors. Sachiko was at the sink, cleaning up after dinner. The Angel's brow creased, blue-silver eyes flicking from monitor to monitor while failing to locate the object of his search. "One's missing," he announced. "Where is our suspect?"

"No idea," Matsuda replied. "Sachiko and Sayu are getting really worried; they just finished talking about how unusual it is for him to miss a meal when he's home."

"Apparently he left to see his girlfriend off at the Tokyo-Eki, but never came back." L reported on what he had gleened from the conversation. "Could he have somehow gotten wind of our movements and decided to return to the shelter of his Coven back in Sendai?"

"He hasn't made a run for it."

"How can you be so sure, Matusda?"

The newest member of the Task Force pointed to the monitor connected to a camera positioned just opposite the front door. "Because he's back." Sure enough there was Light, walking in from the cool night outside as if nothing was odd about him being gone so long; he took off his shoes and set them beside the door before venturing further into the house.

"Light?" his mother removed her attention from the mess of dishes in the sink to glare at her son, but relief at the alleviation of her concerns for her eldest child prevailed over any anger that she may have had after mere moments. "Oh, thank goodness you're finally home! We were worried; where were you?"

"Oh, I uh…" he shifted almost uncomfortably and laughed. "I lost track of time at Tatami; the Izakaya right down the street from the Tokyo-Eki."

"How much did you drink, Nii-san?" Sayu, having overheard the last few words of the conversation, was unable to resist jumping in at the chance to poke good natured fun at her elder brother. "Were you drunk? Is that what you meant when you said that you 'lost track of time'?"

"…And if I was too drunk to remember how drunk I was?"

"LIGHT YAGAMI!"

"I'm only joking, Mom." He and his sister both laughed at her reaction; over the years, getting a rise out of one or both of their parents had become a game of sorts; a friendly competition to see who could go the farthest before getting a reprimandatory smack; Golden Boy Light usually won. "I ran into Suguro and Haruko; old friends of mine from high school. They were also back from college on Summer Break, and we got to talking and then, bang, 'holy shit, I missed dinner and need to get home before you get so worried that you call in Dad and the Cavalry to go looking for me'. And to answer your next question before you can even try to ask it, they drank but I did not; I much prefer a fine imported Merlot to Sake any day."

"If you want it, there's a bottle in the fridge."

Light's rusty-golden orbs widened in genuine surprise at his Mother's words. "You bought my favorite wine for no special reason? You didn't have to do that Mother; it's expensive!"

"There's plenty of 'special reason' to buy something for my son when he's finally come home after three years of being away." She smiled at him gently. "Would you like me to warm up some of the left overs for you?"

"No, thank you. An apple would do nicely though." Spying the wicker basket full of fresh fruit he made a bee-line directly for it.

"The neighbors just brought those over a few hours ago; I mentioned that you liked them and they get bushels full every year from their tree." If she got the sense that Light was only half listening as he sliced up the apple with skilled hands it didn't seem to bother her.

"Do we have any-?"

"聞き取る Light!" He caught the jar of pure gold honey that his sister had tossed at him deftly and popped off the lid before scooping a few spoonfuls into a small crystal dish. "It matches your eyes, Nii-san."

"Wild clover honey? I'll have to add that to the ever lengthening list of outlandish discriptors of my appearance by woman, right alongside your American friend's Sun God comment." He grinned at her widely as he poured himself a generous helping of chilled deep violet. "Help me carry this up to my room, would you? I have to finish that damn paper at some point this summer or else it will mar my perfect record."

"A blemish on your emaculate report cards? The horror; Heaven will burn in Hell should that ever happen!" Taking the little bowl of honey off the counter she followed her brother up the stairs and into his bedroom. "So, what class is this paper for anyway?"

"It," Light said as he carefully set the dishes on his desk before delving into a drawer in pursuit of a paper and pen, "is an English paper; has your class read any Shakespeare yet?"

"Please tell me that you're not about to start quoting The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet or The Taming of the Shrew at me." He tone was sour, her nose adorably scrunched up in a scowl; Light laughed.

"If such were the case I'd have already thrown myself to my death off To-Ho University's roof." Opening another drawer, he pulled out a small hard cover book. "I have to write a thesis paper about how Hamlet is the epitome of a Tragedy. It's really quite bland; College, dear sister, is not all drunken Coven Parties." Sitting down in his rolling chair, he dipped an apple slice into the crystal dish and coated it with golden honey before popping it into his mouth; the look of enjoyment that exploded across his face at the taste of his favorite combination of food was rather comical to Matsuda but left L with a burning desire for cheesecake, which he immediately requested of his father. Renold left quickly to go in search of some. "I've been chipping away at this Demonic…thing night after late and wholely mind-numbing night, but now I find myself stuck fast a mere half page away from the 20 page requirement."

"If it were A Midsummer Night's Dream maybe I could have helped you, Nii-san."

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." Light completed the perfect quote with a particularly pretentious snort. "I was afraid of that answer. To be or not to be is, unfortunately, not the question here." He sighed and took up the glass of chilled wine; the crystal came away to leave his lips stained a deep and bloody red. "Perhaps not even ten words stand before me and my freedom from the unwanted yoke of this evil assignment! I hesitate to pull this card when it is not absolutely necessary, but I shall now preform the sacred art of the Bullshit."

"So you're lying through your pen?" Sayu questioned with a snicker.

"Yes," came the shameless reply. "I am." Completing the paper at last he set down the pen and smiled. "Finally!" Light quickly packed the paper away in a folder and slid it into his drawer. "Don't ever doubt that I have anything less than an absolute respect and utmost affection for your company my dear sister, but might I ask the reason behind your continued presence at my shoulder? You haven't done this since you were ten."

"I wanted to ask you a few things. About your…shift, if you know what I mean."

"…" A long pause in which he narrowed his tawny eyes at her, observing Sayu in much the same manner as a starving tom cat would an injured bird unable to fly away. The tone of his voice when he spoke again was affright. "Shut the door, Sayu." Getting up and quickly flitting across the room to do as she had been told, she returned eagerly to her seat on the edge of his bed. "What is it that you want to know, my dear?"

"How?"

A small white smile split his perfect lips like a pale crescent moon. "College, and a Coven, changes things. As does finding the grimoires in the attic that Mother and Father didn't know were there."

"And you found them?"

"Yes."

"And you read them?"

"I taught myself to decifer Cthonic script. It was a long process, but I gained incredible power for it. On Full Moons and the Winter Solstice, I can feel it thudding through my veins with my blood. Pure, primal magic. Kouya's Magic; far superior to the things that Mother and Father taught us. Though, I must admit, I sometimes find myself…slipping. Mentally. They're as much a burden as a gift."

"How old were you when this started?"

"Nine years ago, about. I was 14." Nonchalant as ever, Light took another sip of wine and dipped another apple slice in honey before eating it. "Tell Mom and Dad and I swear on Typhon and Echidna that I will make your life a living Hell!" Matsuda exchanged glances with Renold, who had returned with L's cake, at this threat.

"I won't tell, don't worry." She assured, grinning without even a single trace of fear. "Teach me, too."

"No!"

"But Light, why!" Sayu whinned.

"I practice Grey Magic-Pagan Ritual and Wiccan Values-and this has lead to both myself and my Coven being labeled by both Circle Midnight and Circle Daybreak as Heretics; we aren't much appreciated in the greater scope of the Magical World. I don't want you involved in the volatility that comes from that reality." Light looked like he wanted to say something more, but instead closed his mouth and sighed. "Besides, Grey Magic is still Black Magic in everything but Cthonic Values of 'destroy life as it suits you'. Mom and Dad will be mad enough; they'll kick my ass when this gets out. One 'Satanic' child is bad enough; I doubt that they'd be able to come to grips with two."

"Well then, if you won't let me in on your 'forbidden Cthonic knowledge' at least share your damn apple slices!" He laughed at her expression of annoyance as she snatched a handful of fresh fruit off his plate. "Why are you so obsessed with these things anyway? Candy is so much better; these are just health freak food."

"Well, forgive me for not wanting to lose my perfectly toned body by eating processed sweets so chalked full of calories and preservatives that they could have survived Hiroshima intact! Candy," Light shot back, "is Saccharine!"

"Saccharine?" L bristled, eyes narrowing as the fork fell out of his mouth. "How dare he!"

Yawning, Light drained the remainder of his wine and set the cup down. I think I'm going to go to bed." Stretching his long limbs before draping them carelessly over the back of his chair, he returned his full attention to his sister and inquired, "if you'd be so kind as to leave now?"

Sayu stuck her tongue out at him and annoyance flashed through him momentarily at how obscenely jejune she could still sometimes prove to be. "Would you like me to take your dishes too, Ani-ue?"

That was crossing a line. "I'd be careful if I were you, little sister. Keep swelling my head and I'll soon be referring to myself as 'Ore-sama' and demanding to be carried down the stairs."

"If I were to smack you, how angry would you be?"

How unnecesarilly pointedher words are, especially considering the fact that I was only kidding. Light frowned slightly. "Angry? Try furious, especially if you were planning to get me in the face. I am slightly egotistical and perhaps even more slightly narcisitic from time to time, and where I may on occasion enjoy pain being inflicted upon my person by woman that does not extend to my sister nor does it by any means transfer to an ardent desire for a black eye!" Getting up, he crossed the room to the wardrobe and opened one of the drawers, presumably to search for something more suitable for sleeping. "I'll take the dishes down in the morning, unless you're unable to overcome the fear that the plate will attempt to molest me in my sleep?"

"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE EVERYTHING SO CREEPY NII-SAN!"

Light only gave her a barefaced smirk. "Because the simple fact remains that if I make things uncomfortable for you I can safely rest assured that you won't try and revisit the subject for a good while."

"Like I said the day that Teru came over and hacked into L's files," at this L stiffened in shock; he had allowed his security to relax in regards to defense of his online files on the case upon learning that neither Light nor Sayu could hack their way into a garage, let alone something as complex as L's hard drive; socially retarded as he was, he hadn't considered even for a moment that one of them might have friends who could, "I can see why they think you're Kira! You're an unrepentant ass!"

"Really, Sayu? 'You're Kira' is the best insult you can come up with to throw at me? No うすばか? No ぼけ? The only reason they think that I am Kira is because of my IQ, damn it!" Light snapped as she fled the room. "Oh, and the next time that you decide that it'll be a good idea to bring one of your 'Kira is our God and Savior' friends home, warn me before-hand so that I can put salt outside the front door and paint a pentacle in my bedroom! And set out Magnetite! You hear me? Sayu!" He received no answer, and this seemed to annoy him even more. "'Kira is killing criminals all around the world at the same time; only God could have that power, so Kira must be God.'" He mimicked cruelly. "Appualing dredge! Falling in line like just another thoughtless sheep! We'll see how much of a God he proves to be once I have him sealed and strung up by his thumbs!" A true reaction or an act put on under suspiscion that he might be being watched? L couldn't tell; that scared him. Peto prǣsidium, Typhon-sama." With that small prayer which was chilling in and of itself, Light's eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep. With little left to watch now that the young man lay in peaceful slumber, L turned his attention away from the monitor and onto Genko and Renold as they stood speaking softly in the far corner.

"This," he said, "will be an interesting surveylance."

Two weeks had passed since they'd established the network of cameras and wiretaps in the Yagami house and since that night where the siblings had had their little spat nothing odd, incriminating or even mildly interesting had happened. Sayu would go out with friends, or watch TV. Sachiko would clean the house, restock groceries when needed, and cook meals for her children. Light would sleep the day away, wake for dinner and lock himself in his bedroom to read grimoires, or listen to classical music on his laptop. Each night at the precise stroke of 12 he would slip out his window and disappear into the night, only to return hours later either drunk or toting strange objects; plants with fangs, the claws of some enormous canine, scales that were clear as stained glass but as durable as metal; when such things were carried with him he would perform simplistic rituals that L eventually determined were offerings to his Coven's dieties. It was still unclear exactly where he went, or where he got such things. Kira kept right along killing at the same pace as before; Light truly seemed to have no hand in his crimes, despite his odd behavior. Still, L refused to relinquish his iron-clad yet unfounded belief that Light and Kira were indeed one in the same.

"Light's awake," Aizawa called, making the others aware of the atypical fact that the young man had arisen well before the fall of night.

"What's he doing?" Ide asked of no one in particular as he and Mogi came up behind him to peer at the screens as well. Light had just returned to his bedroom, fully awake and in clean clothes with hair turned to darkly stained mahogany by the residuum of a hot shower's moisture. L leaned forward almost unconsciously as the young warlock pulled out his suitcase and began to empty his closet and wardrobe into it.

"No, no, no!" He muttered. "Aizawa, what is today's date?"

"March 31st."

"Damn it! He's returning to Sendai! The school year resumes tomorrow morning!" L yowled. "Ugh!"

"So, now what?" Matsuda asked him curiously. "We find a new suspect?"

"No! Light is Kira! I will find proof of it if it kills me!" He snapped back. "Now we begin careful plans for the delicate operation of infiltrating his coven! Genko, I'll have you do that, as you're the only one here capable of preforming Black Magic. How long will it take you to create a convincing identity that will hold up against even the most extreme scrutiny?"

"At least a week, if you're looking for one that good." Genko replied calmly. "It may seem like a long time in a case where we really have no time to waste, but backing off a moment or two to give him some time to relax-to slip up-would only benefit us."

"Very true," L reasoned with a nod. "We'll give him one full month of relinquished pressure to relax in hopes that he'll let slip. I want you, Genko, to spend that time creating an atomic-bomb proof identity, background and all! As for the rest of you, we'll busy ourselves in investigating some of the Kira worshiping cults in case they know anything. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Ryuuzaki."

"Good. Then, let's get to work."

The train ride had been long and tiring; packed tight like a sardine in the over-crowded car, he had been forced to remain on his feet for the nearly 5 hour long trip up from Tokyo and the discomfort left behind coupled with the near constant threat of L everywhere he turned back home made his return to To-Ho all the sweeter. Stepping in through the cast iron fence of the Coven House, Light felt the tension of the past two months literally melt away. Safe. Safe from everyone, back in his sanctuary. His domain, over which he ruled as God and King. And there on the porch, awaiting his return, was his Queen. Walking up to her with a small smile, Light noticed that Kiba held his claw rings in her loosely clenched fists; taking them from her and slipping them on, he ran his now razor tipped fingers through her long midnight black hair.

"My playthings are acting up again, are they?" he questioned as he placed a tender kiss on the side of her mouth.

"Hideyoshi had to replace Jalgan at the act of being Substitute Kira after only a few days," she replied. "The American has gone into severe withdrawal at the lack of your administrations to him. He is in desperate need of his Master's touch, which he did not receive before you left. You know that he is addicted to you."

"What of Hideyoshi's state?"

"Hideyoshi is capable of contenting himself with a pocket knife for the moment; Darke doesn't know what to do with himself and they cut too deep when they go at each other." Falling into step beside him she followed Light up to the door. "Only you can ever truly satisfy any one of us."

"Well then, call him in to me. I'll attempt to restore him at least to something useable if not to proper working order." No sooner had the words left his lips than did calling Jalgan become needless; the ashy blonde had already thrown himself and attached himself to his ankle in an attempt to kiss Light's feet through his shoes.

"Master! My Lord! My King! My beloved leader! You've at last returned!" He wailed, desperation clear in his voice and on his face; he was handsome, Light supposed though he'd never come close to his own glory, with large eyes like darkly stained teak-a warm, deep brown-and a commendably toned body sheathed in skin like moonlight. A pleasing offering, and one that he had already marred with many scars. At the moment he looked much the same way as a heroin addict left too long without a fix; sick. Carefully, with a remarkable tenderness, he slid one finger of the unadorned hand beneath his chin and tilted it upwards, forcing the young man to look at his own reflection in the copper pools that hung above him. "You've returned at last." The man repeated softly, shaking himself to bits with need and fear as he gazed up at his God in wonder.

"Did you miss me while I was away, Jalgan?" Light purred seductively, watching the pupils dilate to transform the already dark brown to black, leaving his thrall's eyes like puddles of night steeped water.

"Of course, Lord Typhon! Always!"

"Is there something that you would like me to do for you?" A long pause. Then, wordless, he nodded. Seconds later, Light had thrown him to the floor with all the force that he could muster. "Beg for it." Before he even had a chance to speak, he'd dragged him up off the ground and pinned him to the wall by his neck, eyes fading from golden-brown to bloody red; it had indeed been much too long away from this for them all. "BEG FOR IT!" All that the man could muster was a pleading whimper; good enough, considering the fact that he was beginning to turn blue from strangulation. Tossing him down onto the nearest couch, Light removed his shirt and then ordered him to do the same. Once the silver chest had been laid bare to his all but non-existant mercy he pounced, pinning his servant down before digging the claw-blades in as deep as they would go and peeling a strip of flesh back from the bone. Bloody roses bloomed immediately across the creamy skin; the masochist screamed and moaned, writhing beneath him as his brutal master's tongue began lapping up the blood, driving him into an erotic frenzy. He quickly moved to a second wound, newly opened, leaving the human below him to whimper his name in a lusty chant as he continued his administrations. He jerked in surprise when he felt it; in his mindless desperation the man had plunged his hand down his pants and now had hold of him. Realising what had happened at the same moment a look of terror flashes across his face at the rule that he had broken and he attempted to pull away, but Light grabbed his wrist and replaced it with a deep purr. He stroked and squeezed in time with the violet thrusts of his captors sharp tongue as Light marked his skin with red wounds and black bruises. On and on until, spent and bleeding, Jalgan had removed his now white slicked hand and gone limp below him. Not quite finished yet, he opened a small cut at the base of his neck with a sharpened canine and gently licked away the blood while contemplating simply tearing out the Human's throat and draining him of every last drop; almost as quickly as it had come into being the idea was tossed aside, overruled by the knowledge that L was far from thwarted and he would surely need his favorite slave at his side when the time to do battle eventually did come. Pricking his own finger he touched it to his lips; the sorcerer took it eagerly in his mouth and sucked up as much of the blood as he could before Light pulled back again; he had known that that was what the man had really wanted. "Bind your wounds and rest, Jalgan. I'll need you again later, for other reasons. Bring me Hideyoshi."

"As you wish, Master." Restored to its normal husky timbre Jalgan's voice sent a shiver down his spine. He remembered why he'd chosen the attractive young sorcerer in the first place; intelligent, well versed in the Dark Arts and, most of all, pleasing to look at. Once bound to his will he'd swiftly become more than useful; upon consuming a single drop of his blood he'd been forever enslaved to serve him. Not long after, Hideyoshi had followed.

"Kami-sama?" his eyes-slowly reverting to coppery brown from red-shifted two his second servant, now standing in the doorway; Japanese, like himself, his skin tone was slightly darker, black hair pulled back into a samurai style ponytail which tapered down the back of the white yukata that he wore. Light smirked as his black eyes focused on his naked chest before shifting to the flashing blood-slicked steel adorning his fingers.

"Do you need this as well, Hideyoshi? Or can you manage for a while longer?"

"I have greater control than Jalgan, my Lord."

I'll have to remember to do something about that. Where it would be more than a little annoying to have not one but both of his servants reduced to a pile of twitching nerves without periodic dosages of his blood, allowing one to walk free of that yoke left them better able to resist. "Then bring me my Death Note."

"Of course," Hideyoshi retreated quickly down the hallway only to return a few moments later with the little black note book, which he offered to him with a bow. Light removed his bloodied rings before taking it from him and running the tips of his fingers over the fine leather cover and the carefully carved white words; the unassuming notebook was his gateway back to the immortality that he had once held as one amongst the ancient Gods; he'd already used it to reap many souls, but needed many thousands more before his power would be raised to the level where it once had been. Flipping it open he turned through page after page of names; the neat vertical kanji of his own handwriting filled most of the pages, only giving way to Jalgan's horizontal Romaji and Hideyoshi's spidery ideographs towards the end. "You've done well. Both of you."

"Thank you for your praise, my Lord. It is always good to know that we have pleased you." He replied. "Shall I take it back to your study for you?"

"Do so."

"Shall I than make dinner; it is nearing the time of the evening meal."

"If such a thing should please you."

"What should I make for the eve of your return, Master? What foods would suit your taste?"

"Tekkadon and Kamananban." Light thought for a moment. "And Imagawayaki for desert."

"I'll get started on that right away." Hideyoshi left the room as Kiba went to sit beside him, running a hand along his stomach and making Light hiss and shiver.

"They are more than glad to be in the presence of their Lord again."

"As I am happy to be back under their attentive care." He said, allowing his eyes to flutter closed. "Home didn't truly feel like home this time around."

"Doubtless L had something to do with that," she traced her hand up to his face and he leaned into her touch as she raked them through his short hair. "But he can't touch you here."

"For now," opening his eyes again, Light reached up to cover her hand with his own and moved it back to his cheek, "but I'm not so sure that such a thing will last forever. We can never afford to let down our guard for a moment. Not ever. Not even here."


	5. The Coven

**Chapter 5 The Coven**

The Coven House was carved in black against the falling night, green grass cut and gardens meticulously cared for. The sky behind it was streaked through with golden yellow, fiery orange, molten pink and star studded blue like the layers of a slice of Kasutera Cake; the spring evening-perfumed with the delicate scent of sakura blossoms-was cooling with the coming of full night as crickets awoke and began to sing. The cast iron gate surrounding the properity creaked as she pushed it open and walked up the little stone path through the yard, scaling the steps to the front door. It was painted black, and above it inscribed in silver letters was the Latin phrase _Nam Die Noctem Erit; _For Day to Exist, There Must Be Night. Hesitating for a moment, Genko reached out a hand and knocked on the door; after a short time it was opened by a blonde haired man who was still wearing the To-Ho University uniform, tie and all. He blinked at her for a moment with near black eyes before inquiring in a voice clearly accented with American variant of the English language "can I help you?"

"Oh, yes. I was hoping that you could." She forced a smile onto her face which she could only hope was endearing and thrust out her hand. "My name is Kengo Hōzuki; a transfer student from Okinawa. May I speak with the leader of your Coven?"

For a moment his eyes darkened with suspiscion, then he reached out and took her hand; the act of doing so pulled back his cuff and revealed a tracery of silver scars barely descernable against his already lunar pale skin. "Jalgan Darke," he stepped back from the door to allow her to step inside; the first thing that she noticed was the sound of someone highly skilled at a violin coaxing impressive runs from the strings at a swift pace. The second was the quiet elegance of everything in the coven house, from the gothic molding and darkly stained furniture to the needle point wall hangings and plush wine red carpet. "Follow me." He lead her out of the entrance room and down a hallway to yet another tightly closed door. "He won't hear you knock while he's playing. Just go in." Before she could speak, Jalgan was gone. Taking a deep breath, she carefully turned the knob and pushed open the door; immediately she was assaulted with the heavenly sound of swelling fiery music and the sight of the single most beautiful man that she had ever seen. He was standing before the arched window set into the wall opposite the door through which she had just entered, bathed in the light of the setting sun which reflected off the polished wood of the violin propped under his chin and glazed his short brown hair was a reddish luster reminiscent of cherry wood; his eyes were half closed and focused on the stand before him, which bore up the sheet music of Frank Ticheli's _VESUVIUS_, which he was playing flawlessly despite the complicated pattern of notes with fluid strokes of the bow. His profile appeared as if carved from marble by Michel Angelo, the stone then coated in gold to serve as his skin. He, too, wore the universities seifuku but without the tie, allowing the collar to hang open and rumpled in a display of collar bone that could only be described as windswept elegance and added to his perfection, as did his long shapely legs and graceful arms and thin fingers. The grainy film from the hidden surveylance cameras had truly failed to do him any justice, and for a long time the only thing that she could do was gape at him adoringly and think about what may have been able to happen between them if she hadn't already been married to a high ranking Angel. Genko failed to realize that the music had stopped and the Japanese Adonis had turned to look at her until he spoke in a lilting voice that dripped with a melted-honey sweetness.

"Are you lost, 少女?"

Recovering quickly, Genko fought down the blush that threatened to heat her cheeks beneath his gaze; the golden eyes were flecked with star bursts of chocolate brown feral orange and mystic green. "Are you the leader of this Coven?"

"はい. 確かに. That is to say yes. Indeed I am." He cocked his head slightly to observe her from another angle, the almost feminine curves of the fine instrument fitting well against his body as the bow dangled at his side. "なぜ頼むか?"

"Well, I've been a member of Circle Midnight for almost 6 months now. I first heard about your Coven's…ideas of Grey Magic back home." She explained. "It intruiges."

_I commend your newest bold attempt, L. Sadly, it seems that I yet remain one step ahead of you. Not only does this prove that you have sent another hound after me, but it shows that my suspiscions of you having me under surveylance were indeed correct. That 'Grey Magic' crap was nothing but an elaborate façade designed to head off my family should they ever find out about my Paganism. But it would seem it has aided me as a sort of early warning system as well. I know that you, my dear, are nothing but a spy sent into my sanctum in an attempt to ruin me, but it would do me no good to allow you to know of what I know. So, for now, I shall allow you to play your little game. _Only a moment in time had passed as his mind raced through this realization. Adept as ever at faking emotions while concealing the truth of what he truly felt, Light assembled his handsome features into a warm smile. "ああ, なるほと. Allow me, then, to welcome you." Stepping forward, Light took her hands in both of his own. "You've come far?"

"はい. I'm originally from England, but I've lived in Okinawa with my grandparents for the past 12 years. I transferred here to Sendai in order to attend the University and, of course, to look into the concept of Grey Magic further."

"You'll find little difference," Light informed her. "Grey Magic is still the practice of the Black Arts, but done so under the Wiccan mantra."

"Do as thou wilt so long as it harms none?"

He nodded. "I was raised by a Wiccan family, you see; I appreciate the power over the nine elemental planes that the Cthonic teachings of Prince Kouya's arts allow, and I see a potential in Black Magic for use towards society's betterence."

"Your ideals become more and more interesting by the minute," she informed him in an upbeat voice, watching the fluid shifting of his muscles beneath his school uniform as he loosened the bow before putting it and his violin away and closed the case. "Can you inform me of one such instance that you have in mind?"

"Say that it's a murder scene; no witnesses, no evidence by the dead body at your feet; the case goes cold. It's never solved, and the bastard that was behind it goes free to maim and kill again and again as it pleases him." Light launched into the explination as he leaned the violin against the wall. "Necromancy has always been thought of as the worst of the Black Arts, due to its use in enslaving the dead to your eternal servitude. But use it in this instance, and you can call upon the spirit of the victim to lead you to the son of a bitch who killed them; a hell of a lot more accurate than psychics, that's for sure. Another use would show itself in legal exicutions; wave your hand and the bastard drops dead."

"Like what Kira is doing?"

He looked over at her with something close to annoyance in his beautiful eyes. "I do believe that I said _legal_ exicutions." He replied curtly. "I believe vehemently in the death penalty; Hammurabi had it right, I think, when he said 'an eye for an eye'. Because of that, some people call out my ideas of justice as extreme. But that does not mean that I side with zealots like Kira; it's people like him who pervert the justice that Black Magic could provide to their own ends and, in the process, make my job a hell of a lot harder than it needs to be!"

"Reinstate 'an eye for an eye' into law and soon enough the whole world would be blind." Genko pointed out. The hard annoyance faded from his eyes, replaced by an expression of deep thought as his lips pulled down into something reminiscent of a frown.

"I suppose that I never looked at things that way." Light admitted after a moment. "I guess that the way I see things is this; the non-magical societies the world over all the use of bullets, bio weaponry and atomic bombs when nessicatated to preserve the peace and protect the established order. Why can't the regulators of the Night World, or at least the leaders of Circle Midnight and Circle Daybreak, allow such measures to be equaled in Black Magic in such situations? What I am suggesting is logical and containable; it's not as if I'm howling anarchy naked in the streets. Yet no one will hear me! They laugh at me, without even considering the true worth of my beliefs." He sighed heavily. "It's quite frustrating."

"The Regulators have enough laws to fail at enforcing already. I highly doubt that they want any more. And the leaders of the two Circles are two damn wrapped up in crawling up each other's asses that they could care less what's going on outside." Genko grumbled; Light laughed, making butterflies explode into the pit of her stomach.

"I suppose that that is true," he said with a smile. "It certainly sounds about right."

"Has anyone even seen the Regulators?" Genko whirled around with a start to find a third young man with features rather reminiscent of a samurai standing in the doorway. "The Eight Dragons-Gods of all the Ancient societies under different names, and stewards of the balance and the plains-never seem to come down on anyone, regardless of how many laws they break or how severely. More and more, especially these days with Kira out and running around, it would seem that the embodiments of the elements are nothing but myths cooked up long ago to frighten children into staying inside after dark."

"This is Hideyoshi, our resident professional chef." Light purred, gesturing to his friend. "I trust that you have already met Jalgan?"

"He showed me in from the door." She answered and he nodded with a pleased look.

"Good. Hideyoshi, ばんごはんですか?"

"うん." He replied politely. "I thought that you would enjoy Chawanmushi and-though I know that it is far from summer-sōmen, chilled to your test. For desert, as I am aware of your general distaste for most sweet things, I have prepared Ochazuke to finish up the meal. Is this acceptable, or would you will it that something else be prepared for you my Lord?"

"You know that I always enjoy whatever you see fit to put before me," came the smooth reply. "Come, Ms. …I don't believe I caught your name?"

"Kengo Hōzuki.

"Come along Hōzuki-san; a very fine meal awaits." Offering her his arm in a very gentlemanly fashion, Light escorted her through the Coven house to the lavish dining room; considering how large each of the rooms were in a building with a square footage no greater than that of a frat house a thought briefly crossed her mind that the house must in some way be enchanted. "Take whatever seat pleases you." He pushed in her chair for her once she had sat down before going to sit at the head of the table with Jalgan on one side and a woman with inky black hair and eyes like pools of acid on the other. Hideyoshi disappeared into the kitchen before returning quickly to the table totting five individual sets of the three dishes that he had prepared and setting them out before them.

"I am afraid that we have run out of your Merlot, Light-sama. I will have to go out and get more tomorrow; will a glass of Umenoyado Sake or Kirin Beer do in its place?"

"Either will be fine. Surprise me." Light replied airily; half a minute later a glass of high quality sake was sitting beside his plate.

"I have Agari for after the meal as well."

"ひじょのよい." Light said with a pleased expression. "You always have everything ready for me."

"What would you like to drink Hōzuki-san?"

"Uh, either. Alcohol is alcohol to me." She was subsequently presented with a glass of beer. Jalgan demanded a Bud Light, forcing Hideyoshi to make yet another trip into the kitchen, and the woman-Genko assumed that she was Kiba, the final member of Light's little Coven and his partner-had a glass of sake as well. With all of them served, Hideyoshi sat down and Genko turned her attention. The dish that had been refered to as Chawanmushi; a pale pink egg-based custard with mushrooms, fish cake, yuri-ne, and boiled shrimp served in a tea bowl. Nervously picking up her spoon after a collective exchange of "Itadekimasu" she sampled the odd dish; it had the had the texture and consitancy of crème brulee but tasted like fish; not a good combination at all, though Light certainly seemed to enjoy it. The others, too, seemed at least able to tolerate it, as they were already half way through the dish.

"さかなすきでわありませんですか Hōzuki-san?" Light inquired, noticing her hesitance and small frown. When she nodded, he laughed. "Chawanmushi can be an acquired taste; I used to hate it too. Try the sōmen." He pushed the small dish towards her before returning to his own food. A tangled mass of extremely thin, chilled death white noodles sat coiled before her on a plate beside a small dish of tsuyu dipping sauce. Relieved to have a dish she was assured to like, Genko dug into the noodles with particular gustow; without exotic flavors or freakish textures to get passed, it quickly became clear that Hideyoshi truly was an incredible chef. The final dish had to be the weirdest out of them all; ochazuke was cooked rice served submerged in hot green tea in much the same manner as milk over cereal before being topped with tsukemono pickles, nori and wasabi. Shocked to find its flavor actually quite pleasing, she soon found that she had cleared her plate without realizing it. Suddenly uncharacteristically tired, Genko opted to skip the Agari and go straight to bed; though the exhaustion was rather odd in how suddenly it had come on, she passed it off as normal considering the five hour train ride to Sendai and the week without sleep she'd spent before hand.

"Uh…is there a place where I can sleep?"

"Jalgan will show you to one of the unoccupied bedrooms." Light informed her with good grace. Recognizing the veiled order, the sorcerer rose to his feet and motioned to the door.

"Follow me," he lead her down a hallway that, in her lead footed state, seemed to drag on forever and into a chilly spare bedroom. "You'll have your suitcase outside of your door by morning." She barely heard his words as she collapsed onto her bed; Genko was asleep the moment that she hit the pillows. Making sure that the door was snugly shut behind him just in case Jalgan returned to the dining room to find a cup of Agari waiting, a drop of crimson blood already diffusing into odd shapes through the clear pale green fluid. "She's out like a light, Master. Dead asleep." Repositioning himself in his seat, he eagerly took a sip of the spiked tea.

"Good; the sleeping pills that Hideyoshi slipped into her Ochasuke ought to keep her that way at least until morning." Light purred, calmly sipping at his own tea. "She is one of L's; come to attempt to thwart me in my own house, just as I feared."

"What are we to do about it, Kami-sama?" Hideyoshi inquired urgently. "Your Death Note sits all but unhidden in the top drawer of the desk in your study!"

"Guardian demons are stationed in my study, and if anyone attempts to open that drawer without the proper magic my desk-and the unwanted intruder-will spontaneously combust." He replied. "I am always thinking ahead of what my enemies may try; always considering how to thwart their efforts; always playing out the entire game with every variable all the way through check mate. Such is the reason why the Regulators-the Great Dragons-once turned to me when their precious balance was threatened, even though we would otherwise fight." A bladed laugh spilled from his lips like posion. "Hōzuki-doubtless an alias-is a Demon. But she is no threat. For the moment at least. Either way, I'd like to stop things before they have a chance to start. Echidna."

"Typhon?"

"Send a serpent to the Human Teru Mikami; demand of him a list of my followers but demand that he tell no one of my request."

"Will you use him directly?"

"Perhaps later, but not yet. All I need from him, for now, is the list."

"And after that has been done?"

"Determine one on that list who claims to follow my way, but if given the chance would use to Death Note to further their own ends. Bring me his name; should ever L decide to keep me captive himself, I shall send him the item of my power and use him as a proxy to throw that damnable detective off my trail."

"As you wish," pulling a shiki-kami sutra from the folds of her clothing she tossed it towards the shadows in the far corner of the room; it transformed into an enormous black serpent, fell to the floor with a thud and a hiss and disappeared into the wall. "It is done."

"What do we do with the infiltrator, Master?" Jalgan growled.

"Nothing," Light replied softly. "I've played my hand; moved my pieces on the chest board. Now, it's L's turn.


	6. To-Ho University

**6 To-Ho University**

She'd awoken still feeling more tired than normal and, after swiftly donning the uniform that she was not at all looking forward to having to wear, made her way out of the spare bedroom and back into the dining room; Hideyoshi, Kiba and Jalgan were already sitting at the table with cups of coffee. Hideyoshi poured her one as well as she eyed the second full pot that he had made in confusion.

"Do you really go through that much coffee in the twenty minutes before class?"

"That one is for Light," Kiba informed her calmly. "It's pure expresso." Genko opened her mouth the protest that no one-even L, who drank _a lot_ of coffee-could handle that much caffine in one go, but before she could speak Light-golden eyes dulled by a bleary haze of sleep and chest nut sticking up every which way and rumpled as if he'd just had the best sex in his life, kicked open the door with a loud bang and slouched into the room.

"Hate! Morning! Need! Coffee!" A broken up and furious grunt; at the sound of it, the other two men shifted nervously in their seats. The tone of his voice reminded her of a hibernating bear which had just been poked awake with the pointed end of a very sharp stick. As Genko watched in shock, Light snatched up the full pot of black expresso off the table and-without even bothering to use a cup-tilted his head back and proceeded to pour the highly caffeinated substance down his throat. Replacing the drained pot on the table he flopped-shockingly graceful as always even while in the inactment of so artless a motion-down into a chair, nearly causing it to tip over. "Whoever thought of morning needs to be dug up and fucking shot!"

"Too bad To-Ho doesn't have a night school," Genko said offhandedly while tugging against the collar of her shirt which seemed intent on the act of choking her to death. Noticing that the other four were staring at her rather oddly, she demanded "what?"

"The Night is for better things than school." Light finally replied, seeming slightly more awake as he dragged himself back upright and took up a piece of toast. "We should get going before the bell rings; I have a pretty far walk and being late will tarnish my record." He lead the way to the entrance room, the other three following along in accordance to his footfalls without complaint, and swung his school bag over his shoulder before opening the door and walking outside into the floral morning; the invariatable hailstorm of pale pink sakura petals whirling through the air around him provided a perfect picture of the gilded youth and cemented him firmly, at least in her opinion, amongst the ranks of those worthy of being cast-preferably nude-in solid gold. "I have to attend my classes at the police academy today, so I won't be in any of the lectures. Jalgan, do turn in my English paper for me," he produced a folder from his bag and handed it to the golden-haired American without waiting for consent. "Hideyoshi, take notes if you believe it necessary but do inform me of the gist of the lectures and any of the work that I may be assigned." When the black haired man had nodded, he transferred his attention to Kiba. "Show Hōzuki-san around; keep track of her whenever possible just so that she doesn't…loose herself."

"I will, Light."

"我々は再び会うまで." Placing a swift kiss on her lips before nodding to the others, Light parted ways with them and walked off alone through the dendritic zypher in the opposite direction of the University. Her eyes lingered on his retreating form to the point where she was all but walking backwards until she felt a sharp pain in her arm; looking down she found Kiba's long manicured nails bitting deep into her skin through the thin cotton fabric of her uniform; she could feel her arm beginning to swell up as if she had been bitten by a venomous snake; her boiling green eyes were glaring at her with a look that made it very clear that her leering gaze on her boyfriend made her feel threatened.

"Light can have as many bi-curious trists with Jalgan and Hideyoshi-and any other man for that matter-as he wants, but the minute that he touches another woman not only will she swiftly find herself cast as a waraningyo with her name on it, but I'll rip his heart out and jam it down his throat just to see what happens first; he bleeds to death or he chokes on it.

"So I can't even look at him; envy you for being the only one who can truly have Light? I'm not kidding around when I say that he looks like he just stepped out of a Di Vinnci painting."

A terrifying grin spread across her face to reveal very sharp canines as she released her grip on Genko's arm; it immediately began to throb, the skin turning red and inflamed. "Look? Looking is fine. If all that you do is look, I think we may just turn out to be friends after all." She wasn't quite sure of how to feel about that. "Come on, we're going to be late. Light frowns upon tardiness. Frowns severely."

"But-."

"Just because he isn't here doesn't mean that we should abandon his principles." With a flip of her glossy black hair she took Light's place at the head of the little group. Jalgan and Hideyoshi dispersed down opposite hallways, leaving Genko no choice but to follow Kiba into the cavernous lecture hall of their first class. Finding a couple of seats together, they sat down to await the start of the class on the Advanced History of Japan and China. "Don't think that you've been accepted into the Coven just because you showed up on our doorstep, shared a meal and stayed the night with us. You're not a member until Light says that you are."

"He certainly seems to have accepted me."

Another unnerving grin. "Yes, but there is a difference between 'seeming to accept you' and actually accepting you." Kiba pointed out. "He'll only actually accept you once you've taken the Chi no Chikai."

"Chi no Chikai?" Genko repeated. "Doesn't that mean-?"

"Blood oath? Yes." She nodded. "Jalgan and Hideyoshi have both taken it already; they can't ever betray him now. I don't need to take it; my loyalty is assured to him alongside my love."

_Sure it is. _"Why the need for such extreme measures?" A blood oath, addicting them both to the blood that he would give to them, at least in part explained why the other two men treated Light as a Daimyo and King.

"As I'm sure you can imagine, neither circle is happy with what we've been doing." Kiba explained, removing textbooks and pencils from her school bag as she spoke. "Both Nikolai's Midnighters and Arnvidr's Daybreakers would love nothing more than to sabotage us. Not only is Light a member of a magical family that has, for generations, been put up on a pedestal but he's challenging the established seperations between Black and White Magics; such a thing has left him with many powerful and influential enemies. He has every right to be as cautious as he can."

"I think that that is walking between cautious and paranoid."

"You're free to think what you wish." Below them, the professor had already lesson about the Chinese Dynasties from the beginning of history. "But unless you start making such small sacrifices to Light, you'll never truly become one of us."

"I thought sacrifices were only to be made to Gods." Genko confronted. "Is that truly how all of you see Light? A God in the form of a man?"

For a moment that seemed to stretch on forever Kiba glared at her, then just when she seemed about to answer the professor demanded "Yamamori-san, can you explain to us why the Zhou Dynasty fell to the forces of the Qin?"

"はい、先生." Kiba spoke in a voice just loud enough to echo around the room for all to hear as she stood up. The Zhou dynasty fell to Shi Huang Di's forces in 256 BC due to the process known as the Dynastic Cycle, which is present in China from the time of the Shang-the first validated Dynasty to actually exist, though legends tell of the Xia dynasty which predated it-all the way up to the last Dynasty of China, the Manchurian controlled Qing. It is a cycle which begins when an emporer rises to achieve power by claiming the 'Mandate of Heaven'-the God Given right to rule China-and ultimately concludes with them losing it and their Dynasty being replaced-often through peasant revolt and murder-by another."

"Thank you, Yamamori-san. You may sit down now."

Kiba did as she was told and set to studiously ignoring Genko; this behavior persisted until the end of their final class. "Come with me to meet Light; he'll be out of the academy soon."

"So you're talking to me again, now are you?"

Kiba smirked at her surly tone. "With holding my words is my right, is it not? As we've only just met last night, I didn't think that you would miss them so much."

_Oh, please! _Genko had to fight down the snort that threatened to tear through her control at her arrogance. "It's just weird to be someone for an entire day and have them ignore you the entire time, regardless of how well you may or may not know them."

At this, Kiba shrugged her pointed shoulders. "I suppose." Pulling a stick of lip gloss from her bag she applied it quickly before replacing it again. "Are you coming with me, or not?"

"Are you incapable of walking down the street on your own, Yamamori-san?"

Kiba rounded on her with a glare, her lips glazed like cherries and her green eyes almost slit-pupiled with anger. "I have noticed-as I am sure that you are well aware after our conversation this morning-that you, at the very least, an affection for my boyfriend's beauty. I thought that you would jump at any chance to stare at him that you were given. If I happen to be wrong than you may proceed back to the Coven House to wait; I am sure that Jalgan and Hideyoshi would prove capable of finding some way to keep you occupied in the mean time."

"No, I'll come." It came out a bit too hastily, but by the time that fact had registered it was too late to take it back and blushing would prove of little use, so Genko dispensed with any attempts at koiness.

"Come along, then." Kiba said. "The police academy isn't far."

_BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_ Even with the noise canceling ear muffs on the vibrations of the rapid fire gunshots jarring up through his arm and into his skull would have soon reduced most to migraine, but after three years of near daily target practice Light had long grown used to it. He was also a killer shot.

By God, Light! You beat us every damn time!" Kurou complained as Shika observed the two kill points in the chest and head of his target.

"Nice groupings," she noted calmly, pulling her own earmuffs down around her neck. "And the hostage is completely unharmed."

"Who taught you to shoot, Light? Your Father?" the other man demanded for what had to be the third time just that day; he was attempting to menace the information out of him despite the fact that he was a least three feet shorter and possessed of the approximate body shape of a Do-nabe pot.

"No, one of the guys on my Father's squad did." Light explained calmly; they both trailed behind him as he went to put his own gun away. "If you think that I am good, you really ought to see him shoot. A real sharp shooter, let me tell you. He can be an idiot from time to time-most of the time, actually-but he's a modern day William Tell."

"I take it that you're talking about Matsuda, Light?" he looked up from sliding his training arm back into its secure locker and smiling at them.

"Kiba! Hōzuki-san! It's so nice of you both to come here to walk me home." He purred, kissing Genko's hand-the regular charmer-before pulling Kiba into a tight embrace. "How was acedamia?"

"まあまあ. No different than usual." She replied, leaning against him with a contented sigh. "How about training for a gun and a badge and a pair of silver bracelets?"

"As satisfying as usual; the most complete full body work out I've gotten since achieving my Black Belt." He'd changed out of the university uniform when he'd arrived at the Police Academy that morning and was instead dressed in a thin black T-shirt that clung so tightly to his muscular chest that it appeared to have been painted on and white washed jeans; he smelled faintly of sweat and his bronze skin was flushed with recently completed exercise. "Did Hideyoshi get to the store yet?"

"No. At lunch he said that he planned to make a light dinner of Oshizushi." Kiba informed him. "I thought that you would enjoy a chance at choosing the exact wine that you're in the mood for since we're stopping by the Sendai Asaichi on the way home."

"A street market?" the beginnings of a grin soon began to garnish his lips. "That sounds like a refreshing break from the normal routine." Turning to Kurou and Shika, he bowed and said "おやすみなさい." Having bade his friends good night, he lead them out of the academy and into the gathering pinks and violets of eventide. A Japanese Bush Warbler sang out 'Hoohokekkyo' as the passed the entrance to a park. Paper lanterns began to come alight as night fell, illuminating their path as they entered the bustling outdoor market; cramped close together between 100 meters worth of small shops and outdoor stalls. They walked together, Light and Kiba holding hands, talking and laughing as if Kira didn't exist and L wasn't looming over them and they had been friends for years. Fish Monger stalls displaying a mirade of the day's freshest catch; golden-orange Uni which Light immediately pounced on like an eager cat, Tori-gai still displayed in their white lipped shells, handsome Kuruma Ebi with thin grey shells stripped with russet brown, and thinly sliced fresh fugu which both of her companions happily ate without a second thought dispite the sushi that awaited them back home and the potential for a deadly case of tetrodetoxin poisoning; Genko had no interest in eating something that, even when prepared correctly, would make your lips go numb. Light bought a bushel of bright red apples from the produce stall also featuring such fresh foods as Shishito, Daikon radish and Hakusai and picked up a bottle of good Reisling in place of his normal merlot. "Let's head back; there's no reason to worry Jalgan and Hideyoshi needlessly."

"Very true," Kiba agreed them, then turned towards Genko. "Unless Hōzuki-san needs anything?"

"No, I'm good." She told them. With that assurance made, they all three headed back through the fair night to the coven house.

"M-Master-sama, there you are! Kiba-sama and Hōzuki-san too!" The worry in Jalgan's dark eyes disapated upon lying sight of them and the groceries that they toted. "Hideyoshi was too damn busy pressing sushi with wooden blocks to notice anything, but when you weren't back by the regular time I got worried! I didn't know that you were stopping by the market!"

"We went to pick up some wine for Light." Kiba explained as they entered inside. "Surprisingly he seems to-for the moment-have traded in his red wine for a white one. We bought apples as well, and Uni."

"It was perfectly fresh," Light purred. "I couldn't resist. Perhaps Hideyoshi can add it in?"

"I'm afraid that the Uni will have to go on the side, my Lord." Hideyoshi appeared in the doorway to the dining room, once more in the traditional dress in which he always seemed most comfortable. "Dinner is ready."

"Uni is Uni; it goes best with itself." Light handed over the groceries and made his way into the dining room. Set out on the table was an enormous boat filled with sushi of all types; Maguro, Amber Jack, Hamachi, Kurudai, Saba, Shake, Ika and Anago accompanied by Wasabi, fresh Gari and Murasaki soy sauce. As Hideyoshi placed the fresh Uni in a neat pile where there was room on the Chinese Junk of sushi boats Light licked his lips and again reminded her of a tom cat staring into a cat staring into a fish bowl. Over the course of dinner Genko was left to reflect on the fact that only in Japan could one witness that much fish being eaten in a single sitting. Once the ship was sunk, the satisfied four sat up for hours late into the night talking and laughing and drinking warm green tea. As more and more time passed in the presence of the warm and capitvating young man, she thought less and less of his being Kira; if only L could meet him, she thought, talk to him surely his preoccupation with the young warlock being the mass murderer of thousands would surely cease. But she didn't logically consider the fact that L would ever give up on it any more than he would pull her away from the strange little Coven until she found some form of proof that validated his beliefs. Once again-for perhaps the second time in her life-Genko soon found herself proven very wrong.


End file.
